feedthebot.com How to follow the Google webmaster guidelines

 

 

Google webmaster guidelines > Design and Content guidelines > Guideline nine of nine in this category states...

 

 

Definitions-

 

links - A graphic, line of text, or both on a web page that connects to another page on the same web site or to one on a web server located anywhere in the world. Links are "clicked on" to go to the Web page they specify.

 

 

Examples and Explanations

 

This is one of the clearest guidelines offered by Google. It simply states that less than 100 links per page should be used per page.

 

If a web page has more that 100 links it is often not easy for a user to navigate and can be made more clear by creating another page.

There is also an opinion in the web community that pages with 100 links or more are often "link farms".

 

Some web pages have over 100 links and are valid resources of good information

In the early days of the internet it was quite common for people to have lists of links that had hundreds of links to other resources. This was mainly due to the fact that it was difficult to find information on the internet so when people found something relevant to their field they would make a link to it to help themselves and others find it again.

The internet is much easier to sort through now. Most of the times visitors do not appreciate a page full of links. I know that I do not like it when I am on a page and I have to search though hundreds of lines to find what I am looking for.

 

It is important to realize that visitors are usually on the internet to find information quickly.

- If you have dozens of links to resources covering one subject, consider making a new page on that subject and moving your links to that page. This allows a more user friendly way for your visitors to find what they are looking for.

- In general the more links you have on a page, the more organized you need to make that page. Some sites (like Google.com for example) have pages that have more than 100 links, but those pages are well organized and are clearly laid out so that users may find what they are looking for.

- Even if your page is well laid out you may still want to reorganize that page if it has over 100 links. As I stated above, this is the clearest Google webmaster guideline. If you want to follow the guidelines, then make sure each of your pages have less than 100 links on them.

 

Key concepts

This guideline is speaking of a webpage not a website. Your website can have as many links as you want and still follow this guideline as long as there is no one page that has more than 100 links on it.

Make any of your pages with your visitors in mind. Use links in a clear manner that is not overwhelming to a visitor.

 

How to determine if your website is following this guideline

This is an easy one to check. Count how many links you have on a page if you have more than 100 you are not following this Google guideline. 

To check how many links are on your page, use the link counting tool below in Resources.

 

Resources

 

Great online tool to quickly find out how many links are on a page:

Online tool for checking the amount of links on a webpage