Not every page is a landing page. By that I mean that there are likely more than a couple pages on your site that you wouldn’t want to be your first contact with a visitor. Policy and privacy pages come to mind, maybe even a login page.
Every site has them. They are important pages to have, but they’re only needed for specific purposes. They simply do not have the type of content that draws visitors into the sales and conversion process.
So what do you do with these pages? You have to have them, and you have to link to them. But you’re in control of those links. Maybe you don’t need links to these pages in a global header or footer of your site. Perhaps you only need to link to them on an “as needed” basis.
Take privacy pages. Most visitors don’t care about your privacy policies until they are entering in their personal information, such as phone or email address. That’s where you need a link to these pages, not in a footer showing on every page.
[inlinetweet prefix=”” tweeter=”” suffix=””]Figure out which pages are of low overall value and make sure you’re not over-linking to them.[/inlinetweet] Yes, make sure you have the links where they are needed by the visitor, but keep it limited to enhance the visitor’s experience.
Every link in our site loses some value. So if a link has an outgoing value of 10, it only has an incoming value of 9. It may not seem like much, but multiply that by hundreds of unnecessary links, and you’re talking about miles over inches.
Another option for WordPress users is the Function Links plugin. This is perfect for links that don’t go to pages but rather to specific functions such as shopping carts, adding to wishlists, logging out, etc. Each of these functions usually uses a traditional link, which cause a loss of link value. The Function Links plugin creates an execution rather than a link to prevent the loss of any link value.