how many links is too many? how about links to the same place?

[spewn]

on a site i developed there are a lot of links on each page. i was told that it might be an issue with the bots because i may be viewed as a directory site or something...

i don't know where my friend heard this from, but it almost sounds good. i know that so-called "SEO experts" are only as good as what they interpret and perceive through experience (since nobody knows exact algorythms for each SE) i take everything i hear with a grain of salt, although it does encourage my way of thinking, somewhat...

anyway, having said that, i'm interested to hear what you guys think.

also, i hear that links back to the current page are a no-no (ie. home button active on home page)...is it links that are exactly the same, or is it links that display the same content (two different things)...do you understand what i mean?

thanks for the time.

- g

 

[ChrisHirst]

Actually none of that is an issue

having hundreds of visible links can be confusing for visitors unless they are categorised etc. I've not seen a case where indexing stops at a certain number of links. The google guidelines of 100 is simply a common sense figure.

Links to the current page isn't a problem 99.9% of sites on the internet do this. Links to the same page with different anchor text can be confusing to visitors but isn't going to cause a problem to indexing.

What does cause issues is having the same content accessed via different URLs, such as;
Session IDs in the URL,

http://www and

non-

http://www versions

both indexed,
domain/indexpage.ext and domain/

The last two do get filtered out eventually, but the session id problem can cause penalties to be applied

Chris.

Indifference will be the downfall of mankind, but who cares?
Woo Hoo! the cobblers kids get new shoes.
People Counting Systems

So long, and thanks for all the fish.

 

[spewn]

What does cause issues is having the same content accessed via different URLs, such as;
Session IDs in the URL,

http://www and

non-

http://www versions

both indexed,
domain/indexpage.ext and domain/

not sure what that means...most of my urls are of this format:

http://www.mysite.com/index.pl?a=whatever&b=whatever

going out to about 6 name value pairs...i read too many is a no-no, too.

what i meant by different links, same content is this:

http://www.mysite.com/index.pl?a=store&b=847757

takes you to the same page as:

http://www.mysite.com/index.pl?f=847757

where both of these links appear on the same page and take you to the same product display page.

- g

 

[ChrisHirst]

You may be struggling with 6 parameters, 3 is about the maximum for the SEs to fully index.
If there are only 2 URLs that bring up the same content it's not that big a problem, all that will happen is one will be filtered out. The issues are:

1/ It does reduce the SEO effect because you are losing link popularity.
2/ you have no control over which URL the SEs will choose to use.
Safest way is to use a 301 redirect to the single parameter one

Chris.

Indifference will be the downfall of mankind, but who cares?
Woo Hoo! the cobblers kids get new shoes.
People Counting Systems

So long, and thanks for all the fish.