Number of internal links and passing 'link juice' down to key pages.

[isaac663]

Howdy Moz friends.

I've just been checking out this post on Moz from 2011 and wanted to know how relevant it is today?

I'm particularly interested in a number of links we have on our HP potentially harming important landing page rankings because not enough 'link juice is getting to them i.e) are they are being diluted by all the many other links on the page? (deeper pages, faqs, etc etc)

It seems strange to me that as Google as has got more sophisticated this would still be that relevant (thus the reason for posting).  Anyway, I thought I was definitely worth asking.  If we can leverage more out of our on-page efforts then great

[RobCairns]

Hi Isaac,

In terms of relevance, this article is still pretty good. As it says, it is oversimplified but the lesson still holds true:

If you have useless links on your pages (i.e. they lead to irrelevant information/pages) and this creates poor user signals (higher drop-off rates, poorer user metrics), then your rankings will suffer.

To be clear, it's not a penalty situation, you just aren't benefiting from your site's content as much as you might if your internal structure were clean, simple and relevant to user queries. E-commerce sites typically struggle with this problem but Amazon still does extremely well with respect to organic rankings because it is a trusted brand.

This leads me to a point I have seen proven with my clients:

Positive user metrics can overcome "issues" that have traditionally plagued on-page SEO. If you can create a good user experience (shown in Analytics through good user metrics) then your link structure is probably pretty good, and having a ton of links on the page is less problematic than if it leads to huge drop-offs because people are getting confused and lost on your site.

A specific point to your question: Diluted links and FAQ's

I'd strongly suggest that you retain FAQ's on sales pages or ranking pages. They answer user questions and require your visitors to jump pages far less frequently while keeping them on-site for longer periods of time, cushioning your metrics. I don't know if this is accurate in your case, but try to consolidate your "info" (i.e. FAQ pages) into your sales/ranking pages to simplify your user experience. This will help you in 3 ways:

1. Keep folks on your site longer
2. Satisfy their needs
3. Reduce the number of internal links on your pages

Hope this helps! If you want clarification or just want to talk shop feel free to reach out!

Cheers,

Rob

[isaac663]

Hi Robert.  Thank you so much for your detailed response, extremely useful.

A couple of quick clarifications if I may?

Google says it does not use GA as a way of measuring user behavior.  Regarding GA, do you just mean we should use it provide **us **insight that Google will 'pick up' in others ways?

Regarding the specific point of diluting 'link-juice'...

So this is still relevent, but make sure we reduce links alongside imporving user experience?

[RobCairns]

Hi Issac,

To your 1st point:

"Google says it does not use GA as a way of measuring user behavior.  Regarding GA, do you just mean we should use it provide **us **insight that Google will 'pick up' in others ways?"

Yes, this is a more succinct way of putting it. While GA metrics are not the be-all, end-all of algorithmic rankings, they do go a long way in explaining why certain sites/pages/content outperform others in SERP's. I know that improving my "time on page" or "bounce rate" has resulted in higher rankings for various pieces of content I have created, although with so many factors in play it can be hard to narrow it down that far.

To your 2nd point:

That's how I choose to operate. I have found that reducing internal links is a good start when it comes to improving user experience assuming that each link provides value or answers a question. The simplest way I can explain my process is that I sit on a page, look at the links and think,

"If I were one of my customers on this page, what questions/needs would I want answered?"

Based on the answer to that question, I have an idea of how many links I should have on the page. The "magic number" of 100 isn't something I pay attention to, although it is a good place to start - if you have more than 100 questions (see: links) coming from 1 page, you are probably not condensing your pages enough.

Hope this helps!

Cheers,

Rob