Mega Menu and SEO

[johngwms]

I am concerned about the number of keywords and excessive linking on each of my pages which has a Mega Menu installed.

For example, I am trying to optimise a page for Logic Analysers:

http://www.thedebugstore.com/acatalo...Analysers.html

As every other product page on the site has a link to this page via the Mega Menu, will this not dilute the strength of the Keyword "Logic Analysers" on this page?

Also, should I change all my Mega Menu links to nofollow? (I so have a XML sitemap).

I would welcome some advice.

[Mike Hughes]

I'm not a fan of mega menu from an seo perspective. When every page has the same links to every other page it's hard to develop a clean structure to the site that clearly shows the focus of the different sections and product pages.

As you suggest. I also think it can turn the site into an amorphous blob. On a large site each page can turn into a thousand lines of anchor text and links with a tiny bit of unique content. How many links will google follow these days and which ones get priority? I don't know, and that would make me uncomfortable to use it.

However, I haven't used it myself and there may be ways to minimise this by limiting the depth of the various menus depending on the section.

At the end of the day the navigation should suit your customers, not the search engines. And dynamic menus do make it much quicker and easier for the customer to see what you have and find what they're looking for.

I wouldn't no-follow the links. They're the main thing that are telling the search engines what each page is about.

I do suspect there might be a good solution for both the customer and seo but haven't found it yet. So I'm still sticking with fixed navigation for the moment.

Mike

[johngwms]

Mega Menus do seem to be used extensively on sites and I do find them useful myself to navigate around sites quickly. It is this reason why I chose to use them.

Making the user experience good has to be the main priority, however, I cannot for Google to downgrade the site.

As you say, from a SEO maintenance perspective, it makes it very difficult to focus efforts on the main keyword phrases used on a page when there is so much noise around from the links.

Any other thoughts?

John

[Mike Hughes]

I guess the way Amazon do it at the moment is a good compromise.

The home page has a dynamic menu that takes you to a specific section. Each section is two levels down to keep the choices easy. i.e. to get to TVs its Electronics > TVs.

Once you get to the TVs section then it's static navigation with all the content and navigation on topic.

To get into another section does involve going back to the home page and starting again (or doing a search). That could be made easier for sites where multiple purchases are the norm.

On the whole though it seems to make sense. Get you into the right section quickly and then let you have a good rummage around.

It makes sense to me from an seo perspective as well.

Mike

[Brightstar]

Hi

I used to have the Mega Menu on my website (url below) - I read several articles on Google citing possible SEO penalties associated with Mega-Menus due to the amount of links they generate.

I used to rank at number 11 for masonic regalia (my main search term) I am now listed at number 6. I have been doing some other SEO work on the site, so I cannot say for definite if it was the removal of the Mega Menu, the SEO work, or a combination of the two which has resulted in the ranking improvement.

[mediamole]

I would do as Mike suggests reduce the number of links in dropdowns say 5 or 6 per column, but list the main popular links for ease of access for your customers

[BillS]

We set up some test pages with a massive MegaMenu just over a year ago...

When we were ready to leap into Sellerdeck 2013 we first checked how our rankings had been affected... I can't remember the search term we checked but we held the top-12 positions in Google for that term! We have never held more than 3 positions in the top-10 before. So, i would say, it does not adversely affect rankings.

Also, the big boys 'John Lewis' et all are using them...

See our prototype here (we have nearly 500 menu items!)

http://www.spicesofindia.co.uk/tester/acatalog/

KR

Bill

[saucysal]

Big Shops not needing Google

Just an aside. The big online shopping sites, such as John Lewis, Debenhams, M & S, etc, all of which use MegaMenus (in conjunction with left side bar sections and filters after leaving the homepage) do not use Google Adwords, or not much, and are probably not too bothered about their ranking in Google or other search engines as everybody knows their names. At most, people search Debenhams, for example, as they can't remember whether it is .com or co.uk, and then click on whatever comes up, whether paid for or natural listings.

It is quite a different matter if you are a not much heard of business, where people are not searching your business name necessarily, but are searching for particular products or types of products.

Sarah