Optimum link structure for a website

How can we decide on what is useful from a practical vs. PR point of view?

[apprentice]

Having read some really outstanding posts such as:

[webmasterworld.com...]
and
'The pyramid approach to structuring a website' (can't find the URL for that)

I am trying to improve a newly created website, currently in the process of removing redundant links. The website is small and until a few days ago, I decided to cut down on the footer of each page, which was made of about 10 links (mostly the 'traditional' about, contact, help etc). I have now replaced these with a single link i.e. 'general site info' which encapsulates 'about', 'contact' and 'help' links. What I am try to achieve is to reduce cross linking amongst different parts of the website to a minimum, in order to get it as close to a pyramid structure as possible. Am I right to think that 'less is better' and that PR should not be wasted across all those pages which I am not interested in SEO terms? Inevitably that contradicts with a practical layout from a users' point of view as if they want to get to category 2 whilst in the category 1 page, they would first have to get to 'home' from where they will be able to access category 2.

Any views are appreciated.

Regards.

[mister charlie]

build for the user, keeping the engines in mind. not the other way around.

i wouldn't worry about removing the navigational links. in fact, i would encourage to do more cross linking within your site to help your user (and the engines) find their way around. if they are on a page about blue widgets, why not provide a link to other things that they may be interested in? red widgets. accessories for blue widgets. etc...

[martinibuster]

I try, when possible, to have a related topics section which will not only theme this group and cause bots to venture to them, but also will keep visitors interested in the subject at my website.

However, my experience is that this can create a spider trap effect, and cause spiders to loop around and burn extra bandwidth. But bandwidth is cheap, so whatever.

[caveman]

Agree with MB.

Also, apprentice, I concur with your instinct. A big mistake that some site owners make is wasting PageRank/link authority on internal pages they don't care about WRT rankings. The other day I was working on a client site that had a PR6 sign up page. Ugh. Don't spread the link love through footer links, except for footer links that are really useful and necessary from a user perspective.

Another option is to keep the footer links and noindex most of the footer pages. I don't love this option; I prefer the simplicy and certainty of controling PR with links instead of robot instructions. But it is an option.

[apprentice]

Thank you all for your comments.

mister charlie - I agree 'visitors come first'. I was just worried that cross linking across entirely different sections of the site could confuse a SE as to what the content of a particular page really is about.

Regards.