Is the 'too many links' caused by the tags?

[Niamh2]

Hello

Just got my seomoz report and decided I better start takiling things. Got a lot of 'too many links' on the report. I don't have control over website design and before I talk to designer I thought I should have a bit of an handle on what I am talking about.

I've taken one page that has 483 links. Is this caused by the tags box and would it be a good idea to have it removed?

http://commonwealthcontractors.com/uk-visas/tier-2-general-visas-formerly-uk-work-permits/

Regards

Niamh

[zeepartner]

Hi Niamh

No, it's not the tags, but the top navigation and the quick menu. Even if you don't see it on page, there are lots of subnavigations in lists that are present in the source code.

Use the developer toolbar plugin, disable CSS and you will see all those links listed.

[Niamh2]

Thank you Phillipp B.

OK so in marshalling my arguments for a change in design how detrimental is this design from an seo perspective?

[zeepartner]

hard to tell... the central flaw in this huge amount of links is that each link that you put in the content will carry less value. Also, from a user perspective it's impossible to get an overview of +400 links on a page. So for both usability and seo i'd suggest to get the amount down to max. 150. less than 100 would be even better though.

as to how detrimental it is, i couldn't really tell. If you have a really strong domain with good content it might not be a huge drawback. but on a small site with little backlinks, it just dilutes the content quite a bit: the less links you have, the more relevant they will become.

[Niamh2]

Thank you Philipp. Your answer is a great help.