Number of Pages a Site Contains

[Jurnii]

Hi,

How does the number of pages indexed from a single website affect that websites ability to compete in the SERPS?

Cheers

[Dan-Petrovic]

Positives:

1. More internal links (anchor text)
2. Internal PageRank passing from more pages
3. Collected PageRank from external sources (bigger fish net)
4. Higher number of entry points (longtail searches)
5. Google's perception of your site is different (knows you're a bigger resource)

In reverse, sites with higher reputation tend to get indexed deeper and more thoroughly.

Negatives: Splitting up link juice across many pages.

[KeriMorgret]

I'd add a caution that number of pages indexed isn't the same as number of URLs indexed. If your site has 100 pages, but 700 URLs indexed due to URL parameters or other issues, that's a bit of a problem that needs to be addressed.

[Jurnii]

The Negative : the splitting up of link juice across many pages. Has anyone ever experienced this where it can be consolidated back into the important pages?

[Dan-Petrovic]

Here is an example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXnbBsRbKDA

[Jurnii]

Well, I have to say that I am surprised by that video, although not quite what I was thinking. I was probably more thinking of changing internal structure to push the more important parts of the site along better.