A friend of mine runs a content-based website monetized largely through page views. He recently shared a tactic with me that's been immensely successful in improving the number of page views per visit. His terminology - "link density."
Link density refers specifically to the placement and number of links on a content page. For example, this page on canine diseases from lookd.com has a low link density:
While this page, from About.com (another business that relies on page views) has a very high link density.
My friend noted that by improving link density across his site, the page views jumped up more than tenfold over the course of only a week. We've had discussions before about page views on an un-usable site like MySpace, but to me, his was an excellent example of how link density could massively improve the revenue model for sites that rely on pageviews.
The counter argument here is on the value of link-dense pages. Some questions include:
- Will a link-dense page be more or less likely to attract inbound links?
- Will it be more or less likely to build a positive brand impression for visitors?
- Will it have the same ranking power?
I suspect that, as it is in all other aspects of web design and usability, there's a fine balance that brings the best results. Just remember - link density for page views means internal links - lots of external links probably won't help your page views 
As an aside to this issue of link density, we should possibly keep in mind the idea from a task-based approach that users come to sites for different reasons, and helping them find the right information for them, and a click-path appropriate to them for a site can be helpful.
A quick example, on the top of the page at Amazon.com is the following:
"Personalized recommendations" and "Start here" are both separate links, leading to the very same page, but they are for different users looking to fulfill different tasks.
One of the values of having a high link density is to provide value for different users filling different purposes. By being responsive to different audiences in this manner, you can create positive user experiences, which in turn can lead to a positive brand impression.
Placement of the links upon a page is also important, and while density by itself may increase internal page views, chunking and clustering links intelligently may be even more helpful in getting a person to the right page or pages for them.
Depending upon your objective, lots of page views, or the appropriate page views, both can benefit from an intelligent use of a higher link density. Amazon could have used a single link to their sign-in page, but instead they give people a way to register, and a reason to sign in if already registered by using two separate links to the same page.
An excellent addendum, Bill. I think there are usability issues to consider with high link density - like how many people really want to read through dozens of links to find the one they want, but there's certainly some stickiness metrics that show they work.
Blogs have done a lot to make interlinking conventional. I think it's very positive for the user experience. Can it ever look spammy? Perhaps, if you are linking to too much content, or to content that really isn't relevant to the page and is thrown in gratuitously for SEO or page view benefit, not for user's benefit.
I run a content company (Applied Content) and we offer what we call "Intralinks" to all content we provide. Say you order 50 pages of content, if any of the text inside your content (words or phrases) matches the title of another page, then we automatically link directly to that page. It has been a very popular feature with our SEO clients that use our content for their clients.
A very excellent thread Rand, and some great comments!
I found myself thinking about this very subject on a few sites I have built recently. The idea of providing links at opportune moments throughout a webpage, is very profound. Not many webmasters truly understand the power of linkage. I have been guilty myself for a long time, and even as we sit here I'm thinking I need to hold up our newest site launch until I can get in there and link it better! :)
Hold the Presses....
Btw, anyone know of any software that will scan a website for keywords, page names, products, etc... then go back through each page and automatically interlink the pages?
I know some wiki's do it, but I've never seen standalone software that will. Sounds like a great webservice site to launch!
One feature I would love to see on this software.... The ability to have a slick interface that allows the administrator to go very quickly page to page and modify the links (density) on the fly.
Sounds like a great SEM tool. Seriously though, if someone thinks they could quickly build it, I'd put 5 on it!
I have heard of software like this - I think someone I knew said eHow.com was using it... Can't remember the name, though.
Hey, it could even be used to sell in-content links. ;) But either way, that would be an awesome piece of software.
Tim,
You hit the nail on the head!
I've already said too much, but lets just say that in-content links would be a superior text link product.
Jarrod
If you ever come across something like this, please let me know... I'm going to look into getting it developed myself.
Sounds great Tim. Let me know what you find.
FYI, If you have the budget, I definitly have the developers that can get it done. Enterprise level.
Email me @ thebassman[at]gmail.com to discuss. ;)
A great point to consider. Generally, people looking to go somewhere else will click on a link (an ad or internal link or whatever), but the people that have found what they are looking for will keep reading. As long as you don't over-do it (like some wikipedia articles have a tendency to do), it's a great way to produce more internal pageviews as well as directing more people to pages that are more profitable.
Dax posted something the other day about a WordPress plugin called Link-a-dink. https://wordpress-plugins.biggnuts.com/link-a-...
“This plugin replaces words in your posts with anything you want. I use it to replace words with links.”