What's the best way to sculpt links on a page?

[KyleJB]

I know PR isn't a top ranking factor anymore, so "PR sculpting" isn't something to focus on. But isn't it still true that having more links that you need on any given page is worse than having fewer, in terms of that page's authority?

I'm managing a site that has a lot of navigational links in the footer, which are duplicative because they're almost all included in the top nav bar, and several are triplicated in the sidebar as well. I wanted to remove 85% of these duplicative links from the footer, thinking they diluted the page authority and that most users probably won't scroll there anyway when we launch the site.

The site owner is pushing back, though, not wanting to remove so many links because he believes they might be useful to some users. We can test our respective user-behavior theories after launching, but right now I have two questions:

1. Will having a sizable number of duplicative links in the footer dilute the page's authority?

and 2) Are there any other ways to reduce this dilution, aside from simply removing the links? (I know nofollow is not the answer, but possibly using iframes or Java or something like that?)

[anthonydnelson]

1. I wouldn't worry about dilution. They may look spammy if the anchor text is highly optimized and they are really only there for SEO purposes. Or if there are a ton.

2. Don't worry about dilution/sculpting. Put links on your site for usability. Use descriptive anchors. Make the site easy to use and navigate.

That being said, I agree with you that removing them is probably a good idea. If they are all present in the top nav, I see no reason to duplicate it all again in the footer. Instead, use the footer to highlight some other important pages on your site that are important but not header worthy. Help, About, FAQ, Popular Pages and others.

[KyleJB]

Thanks much, Anthony.

Any other opinions?