Glossary / Index Page 100s of Links

[Frank_Rizzo]

I setup an ABC / Glossary / Index on the main database search pages. This is in addition to a search facility so that users can either search for a name or browse names alphabetically.

The ABC index generates a simple table of names which click through to a page for that name.

On some of the pages there are 700+ names listed.

Is this going to be a big problem for the search engines? I read that Google has a limit of 100 or so links per page.

I could paginate to limit the page to 100 per page but this will change the look and feel of the site.

The reason I have done this glossary / index page is because the database has thousands of pages of info. Only a handful are in SEs as there is no direct link to them. An ABC page has now effectively given the SEs a path to the pages.

Would a site map be a better choice?

[phranque]

Only a handful are in SEs as there is no direct link to them.

the best choice would be to provide a useable, accessible navigation to those thousands of pages.
if an alphabetized list makes the most sense for that information i would go ahead and do what's best for the user.
the usability of 700 links on a page will typically be a problem for visitors before it's a problem for search.
if you have an articulable taxonomy for that information i would suggest providing navigation based on that and use the alphabetized list as an html sitemap.
xml sitemap(s) wouldn't hurt but it won't do as well as a theme pyramid [webmasterworld.com].

[Frank_Rizzo]

Users will nearly always use the search facility. The glossary is there as an option if they wish to peruse a list of names, such as when they don't know the exact name except it begins with G etc.

So the useable accessible navigation is actually already there. This exercise is purely to show search engines that there is much more content on the site. By providing the glossary it can now follow

widget_info.php?name=K Arnold
widget_info.php?name=T Armin
..
widget_info.php?name=A Zebedee

Hopefully users search the SEs for A Zebedee will now be able to read the info page on mysite. Previous SEs did not know the page existed.

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Within 2 hours of making the glossary live Google indexed one complete section. Yahoo did the same the next day. Not seeing any of the pages in serps yet though.

[phranque]

Users will nearly always use the search facility.

log all searches and you should get some pretty good hints for improving navigation from the aggregated information.

[pageoneresults]

I might look at creating drilldown pages for the user. Give them upper level linkage to choose from which takes them further down the chain. I'd also look at using RDFa and other metadata formats to get the machine readable grammar to the SEs.

I'd NoIndex those drilldown pages as they are typically navigational in nature, no need to waste space on those. It's the last destination that counts, the actual definitions. So, be sure that the final destination pages are open for full indexing.

If you have an intelligent search feature, you'll have access to information that will help you help the visitor. Most popular searches, trending, etc. However you wish to set it up. Just be sure that your power pages are being utilized in the chain correctly to push up, down, and sideways. NoIndex those pages that you don't want the average visitor to land on, normally navigational drilldown pages. Help the bot get to the final destination and don't waste its resources in the process.

The other thing you can do is Ajax everything for the user and just serve an RSS/XML Feed for the SEs. No guessing and you don't have to worry about what the SEs are indexing that they shouldn't be. ;)