Breadcrumbs VS. Menu Buttons

[tclane]

Which do you think would have the greatest impact on SEO, a home page menu button with your best keyword or a homepage breadcrumb with your best keyword?

[margarett]

Content.
http://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=427913.0

[tclane]

That's great and all, but it doesn't answer the question.

[Arantor]

We knew this. It's just no amount of persuasion from us about the futility of trying to optimise UGC sites seems to work.

[tclane]

We knew this. It's just no amount of persuasion from us about the futility of trying to optimise UGC sites seems to work.

I agree to a point, but there is no argument whether breadcrumbs and menu links pass link juice. The question is, which do you think passes more?

[Arantor]

*headdesk* The fact you're even asking the question means you didn't understand the point I was trying to make.

Best of luck to you.

[tclane]

Telling people that attempting SEO on their forum is futile is like telling people "Don't work, the government will take care of you." I've got a pretty good understanding of SEO and I've tested several things on my forum. You can optimize your forum. Perhaps not as well as some other platforms, but you can make significant improvements.

[Arantor]

So, please, tell me how you optimise a forum when you don't control 99% of the content if you're doing your job correctly as a forum owner? Unless you're going through and editing their posts (which will drive users away)

That's the entire problem with UGC sites. You CANNOT meaningfully optimise them. Your best hope is rearranging deckchairs on the Titanic.

And then Google will change its algorithm again in a few months' time and throw all the results out of whack again, like they do every few months, meaning that at best you're just guessing for a short time, trying to outsmart a company that knows what it's doing and won't tell you what it's doing...


Nothing has changed in the 4 years since I wrote that article.

[tclane]

Optimization isn't only about content. 

[Arantor]

*shrug* I'm sure you know best. I've only been watching the people trying to outsmart Google for most of the last 15 years. It never works.

[tclane]

Nothing has changed in the 4 years since I wrote that article.

You're right. It was inaccurate then and and it's still inaccurate now.

[Arantor]

So if you know best, why are you asking for advice?

[tclane]

*shrug* I'm sure you know best. I've only been watching the people trying to outsmart Google for most of the last 15 years. It never works.

I'm not trying to outsmart Google, I'm trying to optimize my site. It's like ironing your clothes and brushing you hair before you go out, you're just trying to put your best foot forward.

[tclane]

So if you know best, why are you asking for advice?

I didn't say I know best and I wasn't asking for advice, I was asking for an opinion. Are you a professional SEO? I'm sure people who are experts in this area would argue the validity of your "it's futile argument."

[live627]

Which do you think would have the greatest impact on SEO, a home page menu button with your best keyword or a homepage breadcrumb with your best keyword?

breadcrumb. You wanted an answer...

But Google pretty much ignores keywords.

[Arantor]

Given how much Google has demonstrated in two of their three last updates how much they're penalising UGC sites as 'probable spam', it largely *is* futile trying to optimise it.

The thing is, you're trying to optimise something that you have no tangible idea if it's works better or not. So you've done some stuff. How do you know if it works? Increased frequency of visits from Google? Better conversion rate? Could not 'more/better content' also have the same effect?

Google has repeatedly said they use in excess of 200 different signals for ranking purposes for any given site or page. And the chief one amongst them is always 'good content'. They will even tell you that themselves.

Meanwhile, these so-called SEO experts... I can walk around calling myself an expert, doesn't make it so. How can one be an expert in understanding something that is by definition kept basically secret? The only people I would trust the opinions of in terms of SEO are those who work/have worked at Google dealing with this because they're the people who understand what Google is looking for - everyone else is guessing.

[Kindred]

Except arantor's points in that thread were not inaccurate.     They were correct hen and are correct now... and your question,  as has been pointed out, is pointless. Menus and breaecrumbs are good for users aand navigation and pointless for  SEO.

and I have worked in the industry, for professional websites, since before Google existed.

[Arantor]

(And if you are going to tell me it's inaccurate, cite your source. Telling me something is inaccurate doesn't make it so.)