100 links a page - revisited

[judyo]

I keep running into this with link trades and would like to get a definitive answer so we can all learn. Google still recommends that a web page should have no more than 100 links on it.

I've run into situations where a page has so many internal links on the page that by the time outgoing recip links are added the total is already close to, or exceeding, 100 on that page.

For instance, let's say a page my link would go on (Illlinois in my case) has a menu with the other 50 states plus other links in addition to the main site navigation menu plus any other footer links, etc. For an example, let's say this now counts as 65 internal links.

20 outbound recip links have been added which now brings this page up to 85 total links. This webmaster promises to place no more than 50 external links on this page. But that would then bring the total amount of links to 115. That's 15 more links than Google recommends.

Will G really penalize a page for having 115 links? I don't know, but I really don't want to take that chance.

Although PR isn't as important to me as it is to some others, I do know that the more links, the less PR that is passed along. How do internal links affect this?

IOW, I think some people feel they don't have to count their internal links in G's total link recommendation & they also don't think their internal links affect the PR they would pass on to their link partners. Is that true? I don't think so, but I'd like to hear from someone that knows for sure.

I've also been told that the search engine spiders will crawl the recip links before the extra internal links (I think that depends on the way the page is set up & that has been shown to be true on some sites). But I still think that too many internal links is unnecessary & might affect PR & G's interpretation of a page being an ffa or link farm.

I personally keep my link pages to 50 total links or less & that includes internal site links. I don't think it's a fair trade to exchange with someone that has a page with the chance of having over 100 links on it. I believe G could penalize that kind of page at anytime & I don't think the PR exchange is fair.

Heck, I had a page on an old P2 site that was getting up to 80 total links on that page & I had many sites turning me down for an exchange. But now I'm getting disagreements from others with high link counts (because of their many internal links) that they have an undesirable recip page because they don't agree with me.

[VRI]

Well, IMO, it has nothing to do with the Google guidelines. They are just suggestions to webmasters, it has been demonstrated repeatedly that Google will crawl/follow links up to 100k in file size. I have some site map pages with over 200 links on them and they all get crawled.

The question about links per page has much more to do with the juice it passes, and that juice is divided among all links on the page. A similar page with 80 links passes more pr than the same page with 100 links. It has nothing to do with internal or external links... they're all treated the same.

I do place my external links on the page before my internal links as it's been my perception that the higher the link is on the page the more priority it has, but that's totally speculative.

If you're looking for even exchanges and we agree that the total pr passed is the pages pr divided by the total number of links on the page.... and that each level of pr is a factor greater than the previous (some say 8x)... is a pr4 page with 200 links per page worth more than a pr2 page with 20 links on it?

*Disclaimer: I think it's more about being found on a relevant page, from a relevant site than the number of links and pr passed.

[Homesurfer]

Instead of thinking about how many links there are on a page, right-click, make sure the page is 100K or less, THEN...

...(and most importantly)...

Ask yourself if anyone is likely to look at that page for more than just a second, AND/OR click on your link. If not, it is probably mostly a waste of time unless you recognize the site as an authority or think it has a chance to become one someday.

"Don't be a link monkey"...

[judyo]

Terry, you just mentioned my favorite thing, a monkey. I love monkeys (I suppose even a link monkey). What is your definition of a link monkey?

I create most of my recip pages for those thinking of moving to or investing in a different state or country. In fact, I am interested in retiring to AZ. I went to my own AZ pages and started checking different websites representing different areas and got on the site's IDX and checked any featured listings. OK, if I were not getting any kind of benefit to my site for doing this, I wouldn't.

I work in over 40 different suburbs. I just started using anchor text for a new suburb I hadn't tried before. I made it to #1 in MSN for a couple of link exchanges using that anchor text in a few days. I do get traffic from MSN. Last week if someone searched for real estate in that town on MSN I wouldn't have shown up. This week I'm #1.

If Google were as simple I could stop on that town and work on the next one. But I'll have to do more to appear in top Google serps.

Unlike some members, I don't have 1,000's of links to anyone & everyone. I have become very choosy with my partners, hence my question here. However, because of the many different towns I work in, I have to utilize linking to get top positions for those towns.

BTW, back to monkeys. I had to stop myself from purchasing a marmoset or tamarin. For one thing, I don't believe in keeping these poor wild creatures in captivity (with the exception of a very good zoo). Plus, after much studying, they take up more work & time than my 3 yr. old granddaughter that lives with us (& I think she takes up a lot of time)!

I went to a local real estate fair once because of the the star attraction - an organ grinder & his monkey. I think he thought I was trying to be his groupie after a while.