Every blogger in the world (even the Internet marketers) seems to like having archive widgets in the sidebar or the footer. I’m talking about the date, category and tag archives (the tag cloud). What I recently discovered is that as those lists grow, they leech more and more ranking factors from the posts or pages where the ranking factors should be increasing. In other words, the pages and posts of importance are losing their juice to archive pages that don’t mean very much, for SEO or usability.
Fix the Problem the Right Way
This only matters if you care about your rankings, of course. A person running a purely personal blog, for example, is only going to be concerned about usability and couldn’t care less about ranking factors. For everyone else, though, there is a right way and a wrong way to fix the problem.
The wrong way is to leave the archive widgets in place and somehow insert the “rel=’nofollow’” attribute. As Google has plainly stated in many different web locations, they count against the flow because the links without that attribute do not absorb the missing juice (unlike the behavior of a couple of years ago).
Another wrong way is to use meta tags to tell the search engines to not index or follow those archive pages. Again, they still rob you of the link juice.
My Fix
I’ve been studying the “in-page analytics” provided by Google Analytics. I can tell you that people rarely click on archive links. They are much more likely to use a search widget before resorting to that tactic.
What I did was create a new page (it’s in the navigation bar at the top) called “Archives”. I included a post by post listing, a category drop down box and a tag drop down box. With modifications, a custom taxonomy drop down box could be created — I don’t use them, so I can’t tell you how.
To make life a little easier, I copied my page template to a “page-archives.php” file and changed the template name in the comment section at the top of the template. I then edited the page to point to that template instead of the default template for pages. Now, before I tell you what I did to the templates, I have to tell you which plugins I’m using; there are only two: Clean Archives Reloaded and Tag Dropdown Widget. The categories drop down list can be created in PHP separately (I’ll show you how).
After the section on the template that displays “the_content”, I added these two pieces of code:
<h3>Categories</h3>
<?php wp_dropdown_categories(‘show_option_none=Select Category&orderby=name&show_count=1′); ?>
<script type=”text/javascript”><!–
var dropdown = document.getElementById(“cat”);
function onCatChange() {
if ( dropdown.options[dropdown.selectedIndex].value > 0 ) {
location.href = “<?php echo get_option(‘home’); ?>/?cat=”+dropdown.options[dropdown.selectedIndex].value;
}
}
dropdown.onchange = onCatChange;
–></script>
<h3>Tags</h3>
<?php if( function_exists( ‘generateTagDropdown’ ) ) {
echo generateTagDropdown( ‘orderby=name&count=on&hide_empty=1′ );
}
?>
On my new archives page itself, I just went into the editor and added the tag that displays the Clean Archives Reloaded list.
Tweak It
Of course, the code I provided above will probably have to be tweaked to match your theme, especially the h3 tag sets. Please be aware that some of the lines that are split in the first piece of code shouldn’t be, but if you copy and paste they won’t be split, if that makes sense to you. In other words, you should be fine if you just copy and paste.
There are other plugins that provide the same functionality as those I used, but are presented differently. It’s up to you how much effort you want to put into a single archives page. Again, I’ll emphasize that very few people will click on category and tag archive links (except maybe those included in an actual post). I saw no evidence that people click on date archives at all.
I actually need to do some more tweaking. I have tags that are similar to each other when only one for that entire group is necessary. It’s time consuming, so I’m not going to be changing things that often.
It is awesome that you were able to discover this critical element to help site ranking in the SERPS. However, it is going to be a LOT of work for those of us who have multiple sites…
I’m wondering whether or not it is even necessary to implement an external source for category’s and tags if they are already displayed as links in the post and/or page content footer? When clicked, they display a page with all sources that are labeled for the specific category or tag.
Do you believe that simply removing the “category, tags, and/or tag cloud” from the sidebar and template footer will serve the same purpose?
That really depends on you. I don’t think it’s necessary, but a having a post-by-post list of all your posts is a good idea because you can’t display those in the sidebar when you get beyond a hundred or so.
I also have multiple websites and would like to know if just removing them from the sidebar and footer does the trick?
You can do that, but how are you going to let people know you have more than 10-15 recent posts?
Thanks RT – I think I even understood most of that. I’ll be back after I screw things up…
Agreed RT,
I think the reason you see that tag could in so many blogs is from a few years ago when the push was to “get as many pages indexed as possible” and the tag cloud pushed indexing power to tag pages.
But as you stated, tag pages are pretty much worthless anyway for humans.
Thanks for the coding info as well.
AL
Yep, if we fail to change with the times, we’ll just suffer the consequences. That’s why I read a lot. I may not comment a lot, but I READ A LOT.
Reading is good — better than commenting. Off to read! lol
Very interesting indeed. Obviously something that should be done on all the blogs pretty quick. Since I want something to show up on the sidebar below the most recent/most popular posts sections instead of too much empty white sidebar, I’d really like to know how you do those text blocks with text links, like where yours says “Want to learn how to turn your writing skills into a full-time online income? The Freelance Writing Guide will teach you everything you need to know” etc etc. Post idea perhaps?
Those are just text widgets with links embedded. I put them all in one widget, but they can be put in separate widgets too (but the spacing would probably be more between them).
That’s what I initially thought but figured I’d ask. Maybe it looks different to me because of the theme we’re using. Thanks!
Can you use a Sitemap (page) in the top menu to accomplish the same thing?
I wouldn’t. They’re ugly. Remember, sitemaps are for search engines, post listings are for humans.
Actually – sitemap is what I first thought as well, only for people and not the SE’s.
It’s only natural. Some plugins even call them sitemaps when they’re not.
Hi RT,
Found you via Grizzly’s link…. thanks Griz! :D
Kinda bit confused right now so could you help me to understand this properly … now here’s my question
I use blogspto blogs and when I click on the Archive widget, blogger gives us three different types of settings,
1. Hierarchy (the default one – yep first as always… like big shot politicians ;-) )
2. Flat list (looks pretty darn ugly ;-) )
3. Drop Down Menu….
So are you suggesting about converting from the default “Hierarchy” to the “Drop Down Menu” ?
Oh btw I’m not using the “label” widget in blogger.
And finally thank you for sharing this, not everyone is prepared to just give away stuff like this!. LOL.
I’m not familiar enough with Blogger to say how to do it. You just don’t want them in the sidebar if you can help it. If you have them in a post, that isn’t a problem.
OK try not to put that archive in your sidebar, got it thanks :D
hi rt,
just followed a link here from griz’ fb page. i got rid of most of the widgets, but i’m not sure what you mean about the “internal” links. are you saying those internal links (simply inter-site navigation) are draining g juice? i have very, very few links to external sites.
if the internal, navigation links are bad, well that’s good because i can save lots of time by NOT linking all my pages and posts together.
????
Internal links from post to post, post to page, etc. Those are okay. It’s the archives lists in the sidebars and footers that leech juice from the posts and pages. Date, category and tag archives to be specific. External links are another matter altogether.
Hi RT, that’s a brilliant piece of work there. I’ve been leaving archive sidebar lists in blogs since forever without giving them a second thought.
I wonder if simply taking down the archives widget will elicit a stern look from Google for suddenly reducing the navigability of the site? Of course, this is only a problem with blogs. Most of my sites are now static and have a simple html sitemap page for visitors to use, so there is ample navigation on them.
But for the few of my sites that have to remain as blogs, I’ll be making some changes. Thanks for the insight!
You said that as your list of internal links grows “they leech more and more ranking.” Do you know if there some magic number of links at which this leeching starts being an issue? In other words, is, say, 15 links perfectly okay but 16 links not?
It starts with the first category, tag or date archive. Think of it this way. Start with 10 and subtract .01 from the home page every time you add a category, tag or a new post that results in another date archive listing. How long before it becomes negative? When they’re in the sidebar or footer, they’re on every post and page. Links pointing to a particular page offset it for that page, but negative is still negative even if it’s only .01.
RT,
Is this only for sidewide/archive links?
I was also under the impression that the more internal links the better, but obviously not…
Will try this.
Cheers
I’m being specific to sitewide internal links in the sidebar or footer. Do you really want juice going to tag pages, for example? Spread the juice to the meat of your site – the posts and pages and defeat it anywhere else it doesn’t help anyone.
Aha! No wonder some of the /tag and /category pages rank better than the actual pages that have the keywords in them:S
Although from a user’s point of view, I thought that having categories was a helpful way to navigate my product site. Maybe it’s best to hard-code those categories in, to pages instead of tags and categories.
Thanks heaps.
Hi Richard,
I heard a theory that having the archives widget in the sidebar would bleed page rank, and so I removed mine about two years ago. What followed was that my traffic slowly decreased over a period of several months, at the time I didn’t have a clue what had caused the situation. However, when it finally dawned on me to replace the archives widget – the traffic started coming back right away.
I only have about 50 posts/pages on my site, so I don’t know if that’s a factor or not. I’m worried about messing with the archive, but I may just try what you prescribe here and see what happens.
We’ll see. My ranking sucks for my site, but my traffic is decent averaging 105+/day.
You have to practice interlinking between posts and pages, so that G follows everything when you don’t have any other way of linking them. A related posts plugin will do a world of wonder in case interlinking isn’t your strong suit.
What about the added benefit of having more pages indexed by Google, thus making your site bigger and more ‘powerful’ as they say? The link juice being spread directly to the main posts outweighs this?
What value do having more pages indexed that are duplicates or excerpts of other pages have? None, nada, zilch.
Thanks for this post. I am just starting to work on a new page, and have not even considered that links in my archives might be harming my site’s rankings.
thank you for this. I’ll be trying it out in my blogs.
Hi RT -
Is the Tag Cloud as bad as the “Archives” for leaching juice?
I get (as you do) up to 9 result entries on a SERP for well linked keywords, and a few of them are tag links. Can that be bad?
Rhys
It took me a while to figure it all out. If your tag pages, which should only be excerpts anyway, outrank regular pages, then you’re doing it wrong. When I examined everything incoming and realized how much link juice was dedicated to other than posts and pages, it just clicked. At first, I was angry because I should have realized this two years ago. In the end, I just fixed it and attributed my ignorance to a lack of experience.
“What value do having more pages indexed that are duplicates or excerpts of other pages have? None, nada, zilch.”
I see. Have you tested this? It seems to be a popular opinion among certain SEO ‘gurus’ around the way.
What about the added benefit of these pages bringing in traffic due to their tag URLs with cousin keywords?
Yes, I’ve tested it, or I wouldn’t bother to tell anyone about it. Usually, a tag page will appear in the results just above or below the post page. Sure, it’s there, but wouldn’t you rather have the post page result clicked on?
I don’t pay much attention to “gurus” because they usually parrot each other. Personally, I don’t think archives pages should even appear in the search results since they’re much more useful to users who are already on your site.
Sorry, I didn’t answer the second question but I’ll answer it with a question: What difference does it make? As G tightens the algorithm, the tag URLs aren’t as important as they used to be, just like EMDNs, unless they’re 100 percent relevant (and then I still wouldn’t put much faith in them).
I take the view that it doesn’t matter HOW the surfer gets to me, what matters is that he/she DOES. Having up to nine entries in the SERPs just give me that many chances, right?
Sure, but are any of them going to make it to page 1? One page 1 entry is worth 10 on page 3. Case in point: When is Super Bowl Sunday? just returned to page 1, at position 3 in the US a day or so ago. Prior to my change, it and the related archives pages were sitting on pages 2 and 3. I saw no traffic at all from any of them until the single entry for the post returned to page 1.
Sorry to be obscure, I was talking about the first 9 entries ON page 1.
;-) – Rhys
Thanks RT,
This makes a lot of sense, and as Sam says above, may explain why category pages rank even when I don’t give them any links.
Did you add those two pieces of code just to give visitors the option of looking at the categories and tags? If so, is there any benefit to doing that or could you just remove all linking to them.
Take care.
Yes, the two drop down lists are only so that the option is available from there and they’re not necessary. I use them myself and that’s my primary reason for having them there.
Thanks RT
Great post, RT. I noticed recently that my pagerank went up from PR2 to PR3 after I removed a number of links, both inbound and outbound, from my front page. Of course, I don’t have the PR5 I had a couple years ago, but it’s nice to see it moving up again. Thanks for the info.
I only have about 50 posts/pages on my site, so I don’t know if that’s a factor or not. I’m worried about messing with the archive, but I just try what you prescribe here and than i will see what happens.
As everyone is preaching more pages more links more juice, it is appreciated that someone is address the issue that too much will lower your ranking. Very interesting, Thanks for posting.
One of the biggest, missed opportunities I see in SEO is wasted link juice. SEOs and link builders alike are in relentless pursuit of high value links and the equity and semantic relevance that those coveted links carry. However, the irony is they often overlook vast, untapped reservoirs of concentrated link juice on the very Web properties these SEO link builders control: their own or their client’s sites. So when I visit a site and see page after page of equity-rich pages that haven’t been “milked” of their juice properly, I get a little glum :(
What are your top SEO tricvs that you have for a given niche? have you been doing seo online for a while now. Im am pretty new and would love any advice you can give me. I have left my email for helpful tips. Thank you!
Very interesting!!!! Thank you
I hadn’t realized before that the archives could cost link juice. Thanks for the information!
Hmmmm bit confused with the semantics of coding :S, but, would no-following all the tags and links to archives be helpful (easier) if you’re not a coder?
It wouldn’t have the same effect. Even “nofollowed” links count against you.
I am new to SEO and trying to get my new online auctions website Express Bids ready for launch and posts like your really help me find out how to correct my forum page and kick start me SEO campaign.
Thank,
Team Express Bids the ultimate online auctions site
I just removed a bunch of link widgets from my homepage footer. My thinking was that these links would get indexed faster and would pass link juice on to my newer pages or posts that I wanted to get better SERP rankings for. I guess I was being too greedy and making my homepage work too hard, ultimately producing the reverse effect I was going for.
So on a side note, do you recommend NOT using no follow for you home, contact, and about links in your main navigation? I noticed that you don’t have the no-follow attribute anywhere on this page other than on the commenter’s names. Thx!
Dofollow/nofollow used to make a difference. After one of the algorithm changes, it no longer did. If you nofollow a link, you still lose the juice for it. I only use nofollow on the links I don’t want followed and obviously, I want everything followed that’s on the home page. The only way to save juice is not have the links there in the first place and with navigation, that’s kind of silly.
On the e-commerce websites I’ve made in the past, I would try to slip in various versions of my main keyword, to improve keyword density on each page. Which is more important, keeping the link juice, or adding in key word density?
Err, I mean I would slip in different variations of the keyword in the Categories list. The names of the categories themselves would be the keywords.
It depends on how many categories you’re dealing with. You have to weigh the options for each situation.
RT, found a link here from Griz and it was well worth. I think I heard Matt Cutts talking about excessive use of tags and other things. ..and, like you say, they are sapping link juice. Thanks for the tips, Richard
Great stuff, I’m in the process of combing through the SEO functionality of my site. This helps me out a lot as I was worried about duplicate content coming from my archive pages. Have a great one!