6 replies to this topic

[JeremyH]

I'm concerned about my linking structure.

Is it a bad thing if most of my links on my website are to documents on my website that do not link back?

In a sense, they are one-way links.

Thanks.

[Shane]

If it makes sense for your users, it's usually good for search engines, too.

[amabaie]

I have a client whose newsroom consists of several dozen news releases in PDF format. I am recommending that they replace all the links to news releases in html format, complete with the site template and navigation, and have a link on each page to the PDF version.

Search engines decide how important a page is by the links poninting to it. If you have a dozen more pages that link to certain pages, you are telling the search engines that those pages are mor eimportant.

Dead-end pages never help with the search engines, and they rarely are any good for users.

The main purpose I can see for dead-end pages is to funnel people along a long corridor of prose toward a buying decision. Shady MLM companies do that. It is the online equivalent of locking you in a tunnel with no doors and pushing you forward. A dead end page would make me hit the "back" button, unless it was really my final destination (like a PDF document I wanted to download).

[Jill]

Is it a bad thing if most of my links on my website are to documents on my website that do not link back?

Do they link somewhere? You don't want to strand your users with orphan pages.

As long as the pages link back to somewhere, you should be okay.

[JeremyH]

The links take you to a "final destination" document.

They don't link elsewhere, but I'd be hesitant to call them little orphan Annies.

[Jill]

But what if someone finds those pages from the search engines? How do they know where else they might go?

[Scottie]

Craig Geis (Think Web) wrote a great article for Successful Sites a while back that he called Search Engine Results and the PDF User Trap.

Basically, he points out that people can land on those "orphan" pages from a search engine and be unable to get back into your site. When creating things like pdf files, it's good to at least link to your home page in the header or footer of the document so people can find their way to your site for more information.