Internal Linking Strategies for Bigger Sites

[Saadh]

Hi there,

Yeah I know I'm new here, but I did spend quite a few minutes searching through previous threads and posts before writing this first one .

I've just spent the past few hours devising a plan to expand my gaming site. My site has a few levels. First is index > then are my 5 categories, which are mainly different video game systems/a few other things. But I'm taking that 5 to 15 with this expanding > Third I have pages that get linked from my category pages > Fourth are any left over pages, usually not ones that get good SERPs or are too important to me for SE's.

Question 1. I'm having a HUGE problem keeping the under 100 links per page because I want to expand the site so much and quickly. So, is the 100 links or less per page still relevant for Google? My main concern is Google, but Yahoo/MSN are also kind of important.

If I do the no rel follow command for General Site Pages, then any of those links do not count, correct? Also, do Google Adsense links count?

If I have more than 100 links per page, what happens? Hehe, the bottom links on my pages (30 on index, 10 on my 2nd level pages) are my fellow gaming site affiliate links so I really don't care if they get the most devalued , its mean, but honest! But I don't want to hit up any penalties or flags because I'm over 100 either.

Finally, how important is a link from my index page then on a page from my index page? Index is PR 6 and gets 90% of my backlinks while most other pages are PR 5 or 4.

Thanks alot!

EDIT: A bit more info! If I was to get all the links I want on my page, it would be near 125 or so for the index page and a barely safe 100 or so for other pages :/

However, John's website that I've seen him reference to: http://www.suzuki-bikes.com/, the index has 110 links?

[Marketing Guy]

The 100 link used to be an indexing guideline but its no longer the case, although Google still recommend you keep your pages under 100 links. Don't worry about it though.

Don't use rel=nofollow on your own site. It's an anti spam measure! Adsense links don't count (they are JavaScript).

I would try to develop your linking structure so each top level subject area is linked to, and pages within those categories link to each other. For example:

PS2 pages have global links to > Xbox, Wii, PC, etc. But PS2 pages also have links to sub categories about PS2 > Games, Hardware, Top Title.

MG

[John Scott]

As a rule, I design for users, not search engines. If you need to load up pages with links for the user navigation, do so. There are other ways to get the pages indexed, such as external linkage, etc.

[Saadh]

Thanks alot guys. Yeah my navigation is mainly for my users so I have top level links on all pages and then each categories links on that page.

And the linking structure isn't only for indexing. Its also for ranking. From my own experience, 4 keyword+ phrases in alot of my inner pages go up a few ranks through better internal ranking.

Also, what is rel=nofollow needed for? I was going to use it for my contact us, staff, advertise with us pages, and also for the main category pages that are linked from fancy button at the top of my page, but then re-listed first thing in the navigation with normal linking (this is done for the user!). Don't see a need SEO-wise linking to them twice.

Thanks alot already.

[bermuda]

When you use the rel=nofollow you disallow search engines to crawl and follow a link url, you can see and click on it but search engines will bypass it.

[Saadh]

Originally Posted by bermuda

When you use the rel=nofollow you disallow search engines to crawl and follow a link url, you can see and click on it but search engines will bypass it.

Because I'm topping 100 links on every page, so I thought the rel=nofollow works for pages like contact, advertise, privacy policy, staff, and other site pages. Then I also have 6 fancy buttons at the top of my banner on every page linking to my main categories, but I repeat these same 6 links first thing on the navigation. This is for the user really, so I might as well rel=nofollow for one of the sets of links as repeating doesn't help SEO

[Saadh]

I can't edit my own post?

Just wanted to ask can I do a rel="nofollow" for my affiliate marketing links as well?

And what did the 100 page indexing rule mean? I heard before they won't go past the 100 link mark? I'm more so being paranoid for being flagged as a bad site. I don't care if it doesnt go past the 100 link mark as my last 10-30 links on each page aren't important to me, but I don't want to get in trouble.

Either way, I've gotten every page under 105 links, but index page still is above that.

[KC Tan]

I highly recommend not to have more than 100 links on a single page, this applies to sitemap also. This is still stated in the Google Webmaster Guidelines.

Nobody can answer you what will Google do if we have more than 100 links.. maybe they will flag it as links farm, reduced their SERP?

Anyway, if you really want to have that many links on a page and it will benefit the users, try to use Javascript / Flash for the linking. Only left the textlinks for the critical ones.

[Marketing Guy]

TBH I just think its a limitation of Googlebot to follow the links. Theory being that if that page is the only way to the 100 other pages there is a problem. However keep in mind if you cross link pages then no problem - ie, page 1 links to pages 2-10, etc - everything gets indexed.

MSN has 148 links on its homepage. BBC.co.uk has 160. I have a site with 96 on it. V7n forums index has 192! Don't worry about it too much.

(used this btw - http://www.useseo.com/links-counter.php)

[Saadh]

Cool thanks for the tip. Yeah, I'm going to keep it at 99 exact just in case because I'm a paranoid little kid and this is my main revenue generator, but because of so many good examples, for my other newer sites, I'll just care about user point of view links and not worry about the 100 limit.

KC Tan is right that we don't know 100% what Google will do.

Thanks alot guys!