Benefits of linking structure and URL

[kaus]

I am working on something and need to make sure of a few things before I make final plans and would appreciate the help on this one. I am basically trying to make sure that what I plan on doing will provide a benefit to those that I link to


If I was to link out a page to someone using a URL that was descriptive of the websites name instead of keywords or whatever can this still be of use to the site I am linking to in that page?

For example say it was a website about dogs and the title of the company was Macy's Pooch Services instead of using www.mysite.com/dog-services i would be www.mysite.com/dogs/macys-pooch-services....will this still provide just as much benefit to that person who is using that page for links.

How many clicks from the homepage does the link need to be before it starts to lose value to that site or does it?

thank you

[Simmo!]

There is a general opinion that a site requires "deep links" to balance out the homepage links. It will riase the importance of that "deep page" you are linking to, so if it is optimised for a well searched keyword then the other party might appreciate that. The link being "in context" on your page will help, as will the text directly surrounding the link if it's kept on the same topic too.

But for you, it is more important to ensure that the page you are linking to contains quality content - unique and interesting and something people will read - and is not in a bad neighbourhood. If you link to crap, you will suffer in the SERPs.

[kaus]

There is a general opinion that a site requires "deep links" to balance out the homepage links. It will riase the importance of that "deep page" you are linking to, so if it is optimised for a well searched keyword then the other party might appreciate that

.

. It would be 2 clicks away from the homepage.

So than I would really have to go with the main page being dogs, followed by the sub category being dog services and than macy's , and than optimize for dog services the deep page to gain anything right....does this make sense. (thinking out loud lol)

Basically here is what it will look like.

Dogs----> dog services -----------macy's

and another page would be linked from the dog services page

Can the links on the extra page gain anything being 3 clicks away from home page? Sorry for such a nob question here but just trying to understand what value they can have for someone else if I optimize the dog services page well.

But for you, it is more important to ensure that the page you are linking to contains quality content - unique and interesting and something people will read - and is not in a bad neighbourhood. If you link to crap, you will suffer in the SERPs.

No it wont be linking to bad neighbourhoods....far from it.youll see when I am done


Thank you for the help

[Simmo!]

Originally Posted by kaus

. Can the links on the extra page gain anything being 3 clicks away from home page?

The problem is no-one really "knows" the answer to that one, though plenty have best-guessed. My personal opinion is that as long as the page is relevant to the link, it is no more or no less important than one from a level up. But there are other factors at play: like how often is the page spidered and is it an important page on your site. I think the importance factor is more relevant than the depth. If it gets its own organic clicks from the SEs or other sites, then "good"...if it gets like 1 or 2 visitors a month stumbling on it via the site navigation alone, then "not so good".