URL Value: Menu Links vs Body Content Links

[Mark_Ch]

Hi All,

I'm a little confused. I have read a number of articles from authority sites that give mixed signals over the importance of menu links vs body content links.

It is suggested that whilst all menu links spread link juice equally, Google does not see them as favourably. Inserting a link within the body will add more link juice value to the desired page.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Thanks Mark

[danwebman]

This is a battle over useability and relevance. You have to decide who your audience is and what they would like to see. Wikipedia is very good on SEO as they use in text link (and just about everyone on the planet visits them!!).

However some users wouldn't still realise that the in text links could be pressed, so you may get more bounce or people may not feel comfortable trying to find things on your site, some people still like a logical journey to the things that interest them.

Dependent on your type of site I would use both!! however I would use canonical links in your text providing that the your structure is such that all your pages naturally already get spidered.

Also don't do this programmatically or you will get it wrong, i.e. if Wikipedia's page on Fury Seals linked to a Page on Industrial Seals Google would penalise the Fury Seals Page because of irrelevance.

[Mark_Ch]

Hi David,

Thank you for your reply.

Surely having a menu link and on page link pointing to the same page would be an ineffective use of link juice.

Thanks Mark

[danwebman]

No, as one would be canonical, What you need to remember is are you doing this for the user or for Google? if your doing it for Google then don't.

[iPullRank]

Hey Mark,

In answer to your question, yes Google does see more value in body links than in navigation links. That is because they are pretty good at detecting what is the reoccurring code across the site. As Dave said the navigation itself is a question of usability, so build it in a such a way that users can easily get to the right pages quickly.

With the body links, however, it is about branding the other pages throughout the site for relevance. As you might imagine, it's a little harder to create relevance from just a list of links. Whereas if you have a paragraph of text surrounding a link you can programmatically identify context.

All that is to say, what you've read is right. There is more value in the body links for search engines due to context and there is more value for the user in the navigation due to user experience. Account for both, but don't go overboard with either.

-Mike