Site wide links and Penalties

[member22]

Hello,

Does google give you a penalty is you don't have any site wide links ?

Let's say you have flat site architecture but don't link between your categories.

Thank you,

[goodroi]

I have a hard time imagining a site that has zero site wide links. Most sites would probably have site wide links for their homepage, privacy policy and contact page.

Google tends to value sitewide links less than links that are embedded within relevant content. I would focus on user experience as that is what the Google algorithm is trying to reward. Ask yourself "Does this link help the user?"

If you want to boost up your SEO then try not to be obvious when you are manipulating Google. As I previously mentioned most sites have some sitewide links for privacy policy and contact page so make sure your site has those. Also be careful not to overlink your pages. Don't add unrelated links just because you are trying to artificially inflate your rankings, Google is usually very good at spotting that.

[member22]

Thank you,

[member22]

By the way I forgot to ask what happens if my site wide links are only links from category to category without other kinds of links such as privacy and contact.

The only ( site wide link ) I would have on everypage in addition to the category links would be the homepage via the breadcrumbs.

[goodroi]

Ask yourself "Does this link help the user?"

Don't add unrelated links just because you are trying to artificially inflate your rankings, Google is usually very good at spotting that.

[member22]

Does google ignore the template of a site ( meaning if on every page I have the same top menu and bottom menu ) does it ignore the top and the bottom menus other than on the homepage.

Thank you,

[edited by: goodroi at 2:51 pm (utc) on Oct 30, 2012]

[goodroi]

Google does not ignore the templates but they are smart enough to value those links differently. This is why you generally don't see a privacy policy page (even one that is linked from the footer of every page) outrank the content pages on a website.

[member22]

Do they also value the link for the top menu differently if they are on every page ?

[Thaparian]

For sites based on Wordpress, the categories link in sidebar are usually sitewide, say you have 80+ categories.

Categories like Red widgets, white widgets, green widgets...

Links in sidebar (Manually added in template): Red, White, Green...

Can these sitewide links hurt?

[spica42]

For sites based on Wordpress, the categories link in sidebar are usually sitewide, say you have 80+ categories.

Categories like Red widgets, white widgets, green widgets...

Links in sidebar (Manually added in template): Red, White, Green...

Can these sitewide links hurt?

Really curious about this also.

[TheMadScientist]

If you want to boost up your SEO then try not to be obvious when you are manipulating Google.

-goodroi

That could well be the best line of SEO advice I've ever read here.

[member22]

How can I figure out which pages are on the same level on my site ?

I created an automatic sitemap with a software online but it doesn't tell me this is on the 1 st level, this on the second level etc... and I have a hard time figuring out if my main menu is on the same level as my drop down menu as it is visible on the same page.

[edited by: goodroi at 7:32 pm (utc) on Nov 1, 2012]

[seoskunk]

Can these sitewide links hurt

Hurt is not the right word. But I do believe they count as navigation links and determine the overall theme of the site. I recently did a site with HTML5 markup and its interesting to note that semantically the page is segmented with navigation clearly marked as a element. This is where we are heading and yes it would be possible to weight links according to there element in HTML5 so I wouldn't be surprised to see grouped navigation in HTML4 from Google.

However I reiterate "hurt" is the wrong word.

[goodroi]

I get the feeling that some people still have the mindset when it comes to internal linking that they can "trick" Google. This used to be the case. Every year, heck even every month Google becomes smarter at spotting these tricks and better understanding real links vs. manipulated links.

I am not saying you can not manipulate Google but for most webmasters it is often more profitable and easier to work with Google. What does Google want? They want the links you care about to be embedded within relevant content, using anchor text that is appropriate to the content that will attracts real users to click. 80 sitewide category links in the sidebar is the exact opposite of this concept so I would rethink that plan.

As for figuring out which pages are on the same level, no two pages are on the same level. Each page has a unique value depending on how many external & internal pages are pointing to it and how relevant those pages are. Sitemaps are generally not needed and do not significantly boost most sites. Having all of your pages interlinked with relevant links from within the content will be a much better strategy IMHO.

[jimbeetle]

it would be possible to weight links according to there element in HTML5

Yeah, though HTML5 is not necessary. There have been quite a few papers published and patents granted concerning page segmentation and block analysis over the past few years.