Will slight navigation changes upset good rankings?

[meelosh]

I have a site that performs well but the main navigation has become a little "top heavy" and wasteful with the link juice.
I want to take some of the links from first level navigation to a second level navigation. So we are not removing any urls and all will still be there for google to find but will the moving of the pages upset google in anyway? the site will still be as user friendly as the pages dropping a level would be pages less frequented but still easy to find...my main issue is how google will view such changes?
thanks

[aristotle]

It might be prudent to do a gradual switch to the new linking scheme. The effects of sudden major changes are unpredictable, so that route could be risky. A series of minor changes might be less likely to cause a problem.

[triggerfinger]

Moving pages one click further back from the homepage (which is what I think your doing) could be a bit disruptive; I dont believe it will be catastrophic, however. If you are very concerned with ranking/traffic drops, try moving one or two URLs at a time to deeper pages, and monitor their traffic/rankings. Once you see the effect it has on one, you should be more comfortable with moving forward.
I'm curious if other webmasters have experienced anything similar.

[vero]

I would agree - do it gradually, a few pages at a time.
Also, do a 301 redirect for each page if the url changes

[meelosh]

thanks for the input guys....appreciate it.
i will do it slowly one at a time over time..301 will not be needed as the url will stay the same just move one click down of the main nav..thanks for the input

[conroy]

Moving pages one click further back from the homepage (which is what I think your doing) could be a bit disruptive; I dont believe it will be catastrophic, however.

I had a homepage, call it page A with about 60 outgoing links. I replaced it with an entirely new home page. The sole outgoing link was to that old homepage, page A. All rankings for internal pages stayed the same. (been over a month) Search traffic has gone up.

[tedster]

The sole outgoing link was to that old homepage

And that kept the PR circulation from getting all broken up. That's why this particular thread's question might have different answers for different situations - in other words, how does moving a URL from primary to secondary navigation affect where links show up on the site.

[meelosh]

navigation placement indicates to george the page importance you have assigned it.....basically does it upset george if you change the page importance to strengthen other better performing pages. i dont mind taking a hit on the pages i am dropping as they are not performing but dont want to disrupt everything by doing it...basically is it ok to change page importance without getting george upset?

[bwnbwn]

meelosh I know what you talking about. 2 years ago I did the same thing but on very important pages in the site. The navigation was just getting way to big to communicate in an effective way with my visitors.

I took out 50+ links from my navigation and moved them all to a page just for manufacturers I carried. This was a move I did in one swoop and suffered no ill effects. Now I have 1 link in the navigation to this page. This created a much easier navigation for my users to find what they need. As recommended I would now take it a bit slower but improving a user experience is your main thought and I feel george won't get upset.

[meelosh]

thanks for the insight and advice.. i will go ahead and do it slowly..you know how easy it is to upset the "old man" these days..thanks again for all the time