Best SEO Practices for Top-Level Navigation Structure

[JamesO]

OK - First of all, thank you to those of you who view and take the time to answer our question.

We are currently in the middle of re-designing our golf packages website, and we're trying to decide the best way to structure our Main Navigation for maximum SEO benefit while keeping user experience in mind.

The top key phrases we are currently targeting:

1) Myrtle Beach Golf     2)  Myrtle Beach Golf Packages

You can find the current navigation structure we have come up with here:

http://www.myrtlebeachsitemasters.com/index2.html

So our question is this:

We have subdivisions of:  Golf Packages, Accommodations, Golf Courses

Is it in our best interest to:

A) Get rid of the subdivisions and consolidate them to one page?

or

B) Simply "NoFollow" the subdivisions within the Main Navigation?

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We are concerned about the subdivisons for 2 reasons:

1. Too many internal links in Main Navigation

2. The "first link only" rule with Google affecting our additional internal links on existing pages.

THANK YOU again to those of you who take the time to answer this question. We really appreciate any clarification on this issue.

[AdamThompson]

"Is it in our best interest to: A) Get rid of the subdivisions and consolidate them to one page? or B) Simply "NoFollow" the subdivisions within the Main Navigation?"

From my perspective, probably neither. I see possible user and SEO benefit, for example, to having separate pages for North Myrtle Beach Condos and Myrtle Beach Condos, etc. Nofollowing the links will not flow any more link juice to the other links, so would not be of any help.

If each link is linking to a different page with different anchor text, how does the "first link only" rule apply?

[JamesO]

Thank you for the reply. At the moment we have a the MAIN link on the nav for CONDOS, then the subnavs are North Myrtle, Myrtle, and South Myrtle.  If we no-follow the subnavs, will this not bring more juice to the main nav link?

Regarding the "First Link Only" rule.  Because the main navigation usually does not have the required keywords, such as "Myrtle Beach Golf Courses", instead it only says "Golf Courses", does this not ruin any and ALL links on ANY other page that may say "Myrtle Beach Golf Courses" that point to that page. Which is a more keyword rich target link?  Do we even WANT the less keyword targeted link in the main navigation to have any juice? Hence, should they be no-followed, and then use more highly targeted keywords in other places to link to that page?

Hope that makes sense.

[AdamThompson]

"If we no-follow the subnavs, will this not bring more juice to the main nav link?"

No, it will not. Google made this change awhile back - last year, I think.

"it only says "Golf Courses", does this not ruin any and ALL links on ANY other page that may say "Myrtle Beach Golf Courses" that point to that page"
OK, I understand now - you were asking regarding other links on the page, not the submenus per se! Hmmm, I do not know if nofollowing the link would fix that or not. Perhaps someone who has done a test in this area will chime in.

[JamesO]

Thanks for the follow up. I do remember reading about page rank sculpting and that change. Good stuff! I appreciate the replies Adam.