Too Many on page links! Will "NoFollow" for navigation help?
-
I am getting to many on page links ( for all my pages). Here is my website:
http://www.websterpowerproducts.co.uk
I think it is to do with the the navigation bar down the right hand side. I don't really want to get ride of this as it offers users a way of getting where they want without lots of clicking.
I was wondering if adding a "NoFollow" tag to each of they links would stop the link juice getting diluted by the navigation bar.
Many Thanks
-
From Google's perspective: "If those pages are 'non-important' why are you linking to them from the navigation on every page?"
I didn't see any right-hand navigation, but I did see navigation on the left side. I do not see an issue with it, however, as this is an important way to get people and search engine spiders to category and eventually product pages. Perhaps you are thinking too hard about this so I will throw my opinion in along with the three other experienced SEOs above who all I think agree on this:
Do not nofollow your navigation links. Do not get rid of them. Do not worry about losing "link juice" into those pages.
If you truly think a page is unimportant, such as a category that doesn't sell many products, consider removing it from the navigation. Here's an example of how that might be done in this case:
I see the fly-out navigation to sub-categories includes all sub-categories for each main category. You could choose the top five sub-cats and then include a "See more categories" type of link instead of showing them all. This could be useful on a long list of sub-cats like the one under "Power Tool Accessories". You could limit the navigation to just two categories deep instead of including the third fly-out navigation level (e.g. Power Tool Accessories --> Bit Sets --> Socket Sets).
If the argument is that those third level categories are useful to visitors, thus you want to leave them there, then you have answered your question. Leave them. Don't worry about page-rank. If they are important enough for visitors to want them there and to use them, they are important enough to have their small share of pagerank.
If you choose to ignore all of this advice and want them to be there, but not pass pagerank, you can change the way your navigation operates by using a script so there aren't actually any href tags on the page for the navigation. All of the links would be controlled in the script, which would be placed in an external .js file, which could be inside a folder that is blocked in the robots.txt file. I don't recommend it, but that's one way to do it.
-
I would definitely not use no-follow, that just doesn't make any sense as your navigation links are part of your link juice to those pages.
Also, no-follow is meant for links that are outside a webmasters control or for paid links so they are not intended to be used by a webmaster on his own site linking to his own content.
As for too many links in the navigation (at least that is what I assume you meant), that indeed can be a problem for useability. It is always a good idea to see how well-known brands handle this problem, so have a look at for example http://www.ebay.com/ and http://www.amazon.com/
By not showing all links directly in the navigation you can have both a more user friendly website and get rid of the issue you think you have with search engines as then you can better funnel the link juice to the more important pages.
-
Matt Cutts says: Don't no-follow internal links:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=bVOOB_Q0MZYHe also points out the "issue" of too many links per page is not an issue:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=l6g5hoBYlf0 -
Thank you for your answer.
I am actually trying to stop lnk juice for passing through the navigation bar as I think it is just diluting up the page rank to non-important pages.
-
Unfortunately it won't. Some time ago (like one or two years) Google has announced a change in the way they handle nofollow in combination with link juice. Adding nofollow will only prevent juice from flowing to those pages, but won't distribute it over the other pages like it would when the nofollow'ed links weren't there.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
To create extra pages, or not to create extra pages?
I'm responsible for a site where we cater for all kinds of medical & legal problems. I recently conducted keyword research that shows a lot of questions being 'asked' in relation to the conditions we cater for. Naturally, I want to create content to answer these questions. We have a page for 'Cancer compensation' - the 'possible content' that answers questions won't necessarily help someone claiming compensation for cancer mistreatment, BUT someone who asks a question relating to cancer, answered in the 'possible content' may find the 'cancer compensation' page useful. SO! Do I: Add this content to the existing 'cancer compensation' page? Create individual pages of content answering each question, linking to the 'cancer compensation' page? or do I amalgamate all the answers into one heafty 'resource' page that sits elsewhere on the site? What do you think? Thanks in advance. John King
On-Page Optimization | | Muhammad-Isap0 -
2 Duplicate pages. One Showing "/"
In SEOMoz report I have 2 pages showing that are identical in name/URL apart from the fact that one ends with the / symbol and one doesnt'. They are both showing as having too many on-page links. But one shows 106 links and the other shows 106. In clients' admin section I can only find evidence of the page without the /. I wonder if anyone could advise how best to move forward? Colin
On-Page Optimization | | NileCruises0 -
Too many links
My site index has recently showed up during crawl - with a warning of too many links (885). Should I be adding the no follow tag to this page? Wall Quotes, Vinyl Wall Quotes, Family Sayings, Baby Boy Quotes http://www.enchantingquotes.com/ind.html Thank you!
On-Page Optimization | | joziepaige0 -
How many keywords max can I optimize each page for?
I don't want to over optimize by doing 1 keyword per 1 page, but then if I do more, seomoz on-page tool report doesn't give an A grade for each keyword I optimize. I usually optimize for max 3 keywords that are very closely related, meaning they use the same words. Ex. dentist los angeles, los angeles dentist, dentist in los angeles Am I on the right track or what's your recommendation? Should I create different landing pages for each keyword?
On-Page Optimization | | sub90900 -
Nofollow in global navigation?
Currently planning our site architecture and little confused over the management of our global navigation To benefit from the maximum link juice to our 50-100 most important pages we are going to incorporate links to these from our homepage as part of the global navigation. Now I understand we want nice, flat architecture; however; on these sub pages we may one day want to place another 100 of so links on these to another category level. The problem I see arising is if we already have a bunch of links as part of our global navigation we are going to dilute the links on any sub category pages. Now Im guessing the solution to is nofollow the global navigation on all pages other than the homepage? or do the bots recognize a global navigation as such and is able to handle this issue already? Thanks for everyones help.
On-Page Optimization | | jg1000 -
Page Shaping - No Follow Links
It's my understanding that adding a nofollow tag to pages that aren't of significance to users can help with page shaping and directing google to the most important links on my home page. I have 4 links on my home page that I'm considering adding a nofollow tag to: Privacy Policy, Legal Policy, Anti-Trust Policy, and Help-Desk Because these links are in the footer on every page I think they're probably sucking up some useful link juice. It's doubtful that anyone would actually search for our privacy policy or legal policy to find our site. I'd rather the juice to spread to other pages of use. What do you guys recommend?
On-Page Optimization | | inhouseninja0 -
Should I include a "|" for better page title SEO results?
I have seen many sites that include the "|" in page titles and was wondering if there is some SEO value in the practice. Example: Product Name | Company Name Instead of: Product Name by Company Name I have not seen any value in it myself other than a good way to avoid stop words. I wanted to make sure. Currently I have the "by" included in the page titles.
On-Page Optimization | | JedHenning0 -
Too Many On-Page Links
I recently took on a website design client and ran his website through a battery of tests using Pro to take a look at the crawl errors. One that seems to stump me is the error "Too many On-Page links" concerning his blog. (http://franksdesigns.com/wp/blog) This is the first time I've seen this error and am rather confused. The report says there are 104 links on this page. However, I'm having trouble grasping this concept or finding the 104 links. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated. Thank you for your support!
On-Page Optimization | | WebLadder0