Subdivison Links on Homepage

[Mark Washburn]

Looking for input on the SEO value of adding links on my homepage to the 225 subdivision subpages that I have created. The plan would be to put subdivision links at bottom of homepage in alphabetical order sorted by city.

Right now the navigation to these subpages is through property type by community such as golf homes, waterfront or high-rise etc.

Many highly ranked sites seem to use this approach, although I don't see it in use on many REW sites. Please help me to understand whether there is any SEO value in building all these links. Also is there any downside, other than the obvious issue of site esthetics.

[Micheal Pannell Realtor]

I do it, ans it helps, although it is one one or two of them right now.

[VRI]

I wouldn't consider placing 225 links on my home page. Maybe a directory of sub divisions with links to the main page site wide, links to a few prominant ones from your home page (and sprinkle links to them and other important ones on your other pages) and having them all listed individually on your site map.

IMO by using the shot gun approach you're gonna water down the ones that you really want with the ones that may be less popular.

[Ryan Ward]

I have started to something like this and there is a thread somewhere, but I couln't find it.

Check out this page:

www.ryanwardrealestate.com/Alpharetta.php

The website splits up from the homepage so you can click on one of the three cities that I have info about. When you click on the city, a new set of links appears that are specific to the subdivisions. I am only going to make an individual page that I either direct mail market to or receives decent traffic for its search term. The subdivisions are two clicks from home - not too far, but, if you are not careful and don't place decent (unique) content on them they may fall into supplemental results. SR may or may not be bad, but, suffice it to say that if the term has a good bit of competition, noone will see your pages. Add some good quality links to some of those pages and they could rank well.

Placing all of those links on your homepage would probably look messy and be to hard to navigate to for a consumer.

[Mark Washburn]

Placing all of those links on your homepage would probably look messy and be to hard to navigate to for a consumer.

Here is an example of a top 10 Google ranking site (search term: Boston Real Estate)with about 100 links at bottom of homepage. My question for the SEO experts is what effect do all these links have on the ranking of this site? Are they a key factor in the top 10 ranking for this competitive term?

[coastal]

I'd just list the top 20 that you enjoy selling or really know something about (unless you really do know them all inside and out) in which case I might break them down by area or price range and have no more than 20 - 50 links per page. Any more than that and most people are not going to take the time to sort through all of them

[Ryan Ward]

I like his site. It looks expensive which is what he is going for. He is associated with sotheby's. I am not sure what type of link juice he gets from them. All of the links at the bottom (with the exception of partners at the very bottom) of his page are simply internal links to his site. I would imagine that it passes some of the pr from his homepage to those pages plus he stuffs in a lot of keywords by placing them at the bottom.

[Memphis]

Just a few humble opinions.

1) More than 5-links or so on a page and you do start to get a lessor value on the receiving end for that link, as far as SEO goes. (The exact # is a guess).

2) I think having all those links at the bottom like the example you give is very SPAMMY. That's just an opinion.

3) If you have a list of communities/cities from your home page or a link for "Details on Subdivision"; and then had a list of subdivisions from there; you are only two clicks from the Home page which is fine for SEO purposes.

4) You can have back links and exchange links from that page with the subdivision links and have it rank as high as your home page if you choose.

When ever I have a doubt, I just try to think....What looks better from the consumers view and enhances their visit the best? If you keep that in mind, you usually end up following pretty good SEO practices.

[kensmith]

I can find an example of many bad ideas that work in some cases, it doesn't make the idea good. Keyword stuffing, paid sitewide links, only using reciprocal links, .... all work for one site or another yet I wouldn't do it on my site.

With that said having 200+ links on your homepage will just make your site look like crap. So you have to ask yourself if you would give up a professional look just to maybe rank a little better?

[OCTeam]

3) If you have a list of communities/cities from your home page or a link for "Details on Subdivision"; and then had a list of subdivisions from there; you are only two clicks from the Home page which is fine for SEO purposes.

Our pages get found doing exactly this. Keeps the front page clean. We do not place well for the specific "city real estate" as our site is relatively new, but we do place well for a specific tract, neighborhoods, etc.