Google says they want to see sites built with a “logical link structure,” but doesn’t actually define the term or provide examples. What matters, of course, is how Google defines the term…
…but lacking that definition, we turn to the web for discussions of the subject.
The consensus is that a website needs to be constructed of a collection of pages that are linked together in a logical manner: the relationship between the pages should make sense. This thought seems to reduce the value of menus to aid navigation, since menus cause unrelated pages to be linked together. The preferred navigation aid discussed these days is the “breadcrumb system,” which uses static text links to demonstrate the logical relationship between pages and encourages movement along that logical relationship.
Google does suggest in their FAQs that a logical link structure equates to a hierarchical link structure. This reinforces the idea of a site tree (the home page being the trunk, with detailed content as branches, and focused detail on branches of those branches), and might also explain Google’s appreciation of site maps. The idea is to reduce the number of unrelated links on a page, which in turn gives the Google spiders less to be confused about.
Additional recommendations in producing a logical link structure include keeping the depth of a structural branch relatively shallow, making it possible to navigate the full structure with a minimum number of clicks. If you must use menus, keep the number of menu selections small and display menu selections relevant to the position of the visitor in the structure; rather than showing every subject’s top link, show a link to the home page, links to pages related to the current page, and only display a necessary minimum set of links to unrelated pages, such as Contact Us or About Us. While shortcut links are handy for visitors, they may not be handy for spiders, and might work against you.
The advantage of the logical structure is “crawlability.” Google simply finds a logical link structure is easier for its spiders to crawl than an illogical one. Be sure to balance this against “usability” and decide, for any given feature or link, which is more important.
The best example of an illogical site structure that comes to mind is a site consisting of a set of disorganized, unrelated pages, with pages linked together without any regard for relevancy. Without a logical relationship between the pages, Google would find it difficult to index or classify the site, and the site would lose much of its relevance.
It is actually in our natures to produce a site structure that is at least somewhat logically linked. This is particularly true for e-commerce sites, and it is because shoppers also want to see logical structures. Because of this, it is not likely to be very difficult to give Google what they want. Just keep related pages together, and avoid linking unrelated pages directly as much as possible.
Tag: linking
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