Forum Moderators: open
Let's say for example the site sells, among other things, products to astronauts that help them care and maintain their moon rocks. The site contains tutorials and products. In the tutorial section there is a page that describes how to polish moon rocks, and the products section lists moon rock polishers for sale. So the linking structure looks like this:
home -> tutorials -> polishing moon rocks
home -> moon rock polishers -> product 1, product 2, etc
The dilema is how can I suggest relevant products in the tutorial page without disrupting the pyramid/vertical linking concept? I was thinking that instead of horizontally linking from the "polishing moon rocks" page to a specific product page, what about vertically linking the "polishing moon rocks" page UP to both the "tutorials" AND the "moon rock polishers" pages?
These are in essence vertical links, but the vertical links cross over into other pyramids -- so there would two parents for the same page, and therefore two ways to get there (and back):
home -> tutorials-> <-polishing moon rocks
home -> moon rock polishers-> <-polishing moon rocks
What I'm talking about here is the linking structure, not the directory structure (no duplicate pages; the directory structure would end up being different than the linking structure). If this is a valid concept then (when applicable) we could create multiple vertical paths to the same content pages :) ...or am I barking up the wrong tree?
Thanks!
Nope, not at all. Almost all large and small directory sites use that linking method or something similar.
It is good for both the search engines and web surfers.
No matter how many vertical or horizontal directory levels you build, no matter in which directory you file your pages, you should show links that are relevant to the subject/theme of that page.
Thats the only way you help the visitor, and thats probably the only way that that webpage will be awarded the right "theme" or "topic" by any search engine, should they ever be sophisticated enough to do that.
If links get too off-topic, you could always use java-script links.
The strength of the Pyramid structure to me is lining up your thoughts easier, spreading Pagerank better and showing breadcrumbs more logically.
>>It is good for both the search engines and web surfers.
What a relief. I always thought that you're optimising for SEs at the expense of visitors, and visa-versa.
>>I would never get too over-focussed on pyramids as such.
Point taken... so the idea is to concentrate more on theme-focused content/structure than just linking structure? Much easier. :)
