SEO Site Architecture - Three Links For Every Page

If you include a page on your Web site you should be linking to it from at least three other pages.

For a small site with fewer than 10 pages it’s okay if every page links to every other page. For a site with 10 or more pages you should start thinking about creating logical sections or divisions within the Web site.

Each section should have its own focus and purpose. The pages should link to each other (or, if there are sub-sections, the sub-sections should link to each other). You want to foster sibling relationships as much as possible.

Your 10+ page site should include an HTML sitemap page. On a very large site it will be impossible to maintain a single sitemap page for all content but you can sub-divide your sitemap to reflect the divisions of your Web site. You want to consolidate as many links on an HTML sitemap page as possible.

People like scannable information but you can put too much information on a page for people to scan. How much is too much varies by the type of information you’re dealing with. When it comes to on-screen navigation systems (usually links or buttons on forms) you’ll achieve optimum performance with 8-12 selectable items. Drop-drown menus that expand into additional items are unwieldy and hurt usability.

I’ve conducted performance studies where I watch people navigate across forms and Web sites. They get lost quickly and easily. Your search engine optimization should be founded on the concept of not overwhelming visitors.

When you have hundreds of options to choose from, you have several alternative presentation formats to work with. Expandable menus should never be on your list of acceptable alternatives. Remember, usability is not determined by how many people include a feature in their design, but by how many people benefit from using that design feature. Designers and users rarely agree on what works best.

First, you can consider sub-dividing your navigation system across multiple pages. That is, your root URL could link only to section leader pages, which in turn link back to the root URL and the HTML sitemap as well as to their own child pages. On a large site, however, this structure breaks down for the same reason you sub-divided your navigation in the first place: you end up with too many sections to link to.

Second, you can consider breaking up your navigation system across multiple sections of the page. That is, navigate to certain sections of the site from the top and navigate to other sections of the site from the left or right margin. But this approach makes it awkward to navigate to child pages.

Third, you can consider spreading your navigation across your page in modular navigation boxes. Some sites do this quite effectively and other sites mangle it badly. There is no one formula that works for everyone. You have to create a page layout that lets you highlight relevant deep content through micro-navigation boxes.

In a moderately large site it’s a good idea to have sibling pages link to each other. If a section has so many children that intrasection navigation is unwieldy you either need to make the parent page a miniature sitemap (call it a micro sitemap page) or else you need to sub-divide the children further.

If you can link to all of your content pages from your HTML Sitemap, from their section parent pages, and from their siblings, you’ll end up with at least three internal links pointing to every page. The more internal links you have pointing to your pages, the more often your own content will send crawlers to your own content.

The more internal links you have pointing to your pages, the more easily your visitors will be able to find your content. The more easily people can find your content, the more easily search engines can find your content.

You can allow for growth or plan for growth, but keep in mind that allowing for growth is not the same as planning for growth. Planning for growth requires more flexibility in site architecture than allowing for growth.

As you add pages to your site you need to ensure that you don’t diminish the reachability of your older content. That is, if you use announcement pages and/or links to launch new content sections, you should use the new content sections to remind people of your older content sections.

In other words, don’t marry yourself to the idea of building only three links to every page. Build as many links to your content as you need in order to keep people informed and interested.

You can use your root URL as a link warehouse, where you temporarily place links to deep content there and rotate them every week or month. The goal is not to “keep the page fresh” but rather to help people (and search engines) find your content. A root URL link should not be counted as one of the “three links for every page” except for very important section leaders that have permanent links from the root URL.

The more you link to your content from within your own content, the more valuable your content becomes to your visitors. You will naturally tend to link to the pages you value most. Don’t force yourself to link to other pages more often. Rather, think about why you value those pages less and what you can do to increase the value you see in them.

Your passion will draw other people to your site. The more you care about your content, the more it will show through your internal linkage.