How Circular Links Affect Website Usability
Posted: Sun Feb 02, 2025 7:51 am
Experts call circular references a grave mistake and give two main reasons for removing them from the page code:
Decreased usability parameters. A large number of transitions that only allow you to go to the current page leads to user disorientation on the site. This makes navigation through sections difficult.
Lowering the position of a web resource in search engine results. Search robots, scanning a site, make many transitions to links within the resource. If the cyclicality of any element of the network marketing contact list page makes them move in a circle, then the site's rating decreases because of this.
How do you know how much a site's circular links affect the usability of the resource from the audience's point of view? Let's take a closer look at the first argument. The example talks about users who leave the site because they can't figure out the navigation. When they click on elements, they end up on the same page and get lost.
Download a free selection of tools for calculating KPIs and increasing marketing metrics
Alexander Kuleshov
Alexander Kuleshov
General Director of Sales Generator LLC
Read more posts on my personal blog:
Over the past 7 years, we have conducted over 23,000 comprehensive website audits and I have learned that all of us as leaders need clear and working algorithms for our marketing and sales.
Today we will share with you 6 of the most valuable documents that we have developed for our clients.
Download for free and implement today:
Step-by-step guide to creating marketing KPIs
Template for calculating KPIs for a marketer
9 Examples of Universal Selling Commercial Proposals
Upgrade your CPs to close more deals
How to make KPI for the sales department so that profits grow by 20% or more?
Step-by-step template for calculating KPIs for OP managers
Checklist of 12 main indicators for website promotion
Find out what metrics are needed to properly optimize your website
40 Services for Working with Blog Content
We have collected the best services for working with content
How to define your target audience without mistakes?
A proven guide to defining a company's target audience
Download the collection for free
pdf 8.3 mb
doc 3.4 mb
Already downloaded
153442
This description is, of course, exaggerated. The audience leaves the site for other reasons: ill-conceived content, layout errors, confusing navigation, too long a loading time, crooked display on mobile, broken links, etc. It is these shortcomings of the web resource that must be eliminated first.
The extent to which circular references harm user experience is debatable. The problem lies more in their placement and quantity.
"Good" circular references
"Good" circular referencesA circular link is often attached to the logo and/or main heading of the home page. This situation is already familiar to the user: clicking on the logo leads to the home page.
In addition to Yandex, cyclic transitions placed on logos are present on many large sites: aliexpress.com, amazon.com, ebay.com, etc. On the other hand, a non-clickable logo will not scare away users if the site carries useful information. The audience quickly adapts to the features of the resource.
For example, Google's logo does not have a hyperlink.
Google logo does not have a hyperlinkQuite often you can find circular links attached to menu items. Such an arrangement does not harm the convenience of the site, so the adjustment of these elements is carried out at the discretion of the webmaster.
"Bad" circular references
But not all cyclic elements are harmless to the usability of the site. There are those that have a negative impact on the convenience of users.
Examples of such elements:
• headings and subheadings of pages, whether they are located in a product card, section or separate article. H1 should not be provided with any hyperlinks;
• within the content of the page (it really makes no sense and reduces usability to place a link to the same page within the product description or in the body of the article);
• on the designation of the current pagination page (if the user is viewing the third page of the catalog, the number “3” should not be clickable);
• at the last item in the breadcrumbs (if there is an active circular link on the last element of the chain, then you might think that a click would take you back a step; in the opposite situation, if the last item is not clickable, this helps the user understand where exactly he is).
The presence of cyclic transitions in itself does not affect the evaluation of the site by search engines. But a large number of looped elements prevents search robots from indexing the site, since the same page is viewed many times. This slows down work with the entire site.
Decreased usability parameters. A large number of transitions that only allow you to go to the current page leads to user disorientation on the site. This makes navigation through sections difficult.
Lowering the position of a web resource in search engine results. Search robots, scanning a site, make many transitions to links within the resource. If the cyclicality of any element of the network marketing contact list page makes them move in a circle, then the site's rating decreases because of this.
How do you know how much a site's circular links affect the usability of the resource from the audience's point of view? Let's take a closer look at the first argument. The example talks about users who leave the site because they can't figure out the navigation. When they click on elements, they end up on the same page and get lost.
Download a free selection of tools for calculating KPIs and increasing marketing metrics
Alexander Kuleshov
Alexander Kuleshov
General Director of Sales Generator LLC
Read more posts on my personal blog:
Over the past 7 years, we have conducted over 23,000 comprehensive website audits and I have learned that all of us as leaders need clear and working algorithms for our marketing and sales.
Today we will share with you 6 of the most valuable documents that we have developed for our clients.
Download for free and implement today:
Step-by-step guide to creating marketing KPIs
Template for calculating KPIs for a marketer
9 Examples of Universal Selling Commercial Proposals
Upgrade your CPs to close more deals
How to make KPI for the sales department so that profits grow by 20% or more?
Step-by-step template for calculating KPIs for OP managers
Checklist of 12 main indicators for website promotion
Find out what metrics are needed to properly optimize your website
40 Services for Working with Blog Content
We have collected the best services for working with content
How to define your target audience without mistakes?
A proven guide to defining a company's target audience
Download the collection for free
pdf 8.3 mb
doc 3.4 mb
Already downloaded
153442
This description is, of course, exaggerated. The audience leaves the site for other reasons: ill-conceived content, layout errors, confusing navigation, too long a loading time, crooked display on mobile, broken links, etc. It is these shortcomings of the web resource that must be eliminated first.
The extent to which circular references harm user experience is debatable. The problem lies more in their placement and quantity.
"Good" circular references
"Good" circular referencesA circular link is often attached to the logo and/or main heading of the home page. This situation is already familiar to the user: clicking on the logo leads to the home page.
In addition to Yandex, cyclic transitions placed on logos are present on many large sites: aliexpress.com, amazon.com, ebay.com, etc. On the other hand, a non-clickable logo will not scare away users if the site carries useful information. The audience quickly adapts to the features of the resource.
For example, Google's logo does not have a hyperlink.
Google logo does not have a hyperlinkQuite often you can find circular links attached to menu items. Such an arrangement does not harm the convenience of the site, so the adjustment of these elements is carried out at the discretion of the webmaster.
"Bad" circular references
But not all cyclic elements are harmless to the usability of the site. There are those that have a negative impact on the convenience of users.
Examples of such elements:
• headings and subheadings of pages, whether they are located in a product card, section or separate article. H1 should not be provided with any hyperlinks;
• within the content of the page (it really makes no sense and reduces usability to place a link to the same page within the product description or in the body of the article);
• on the designation of the current pagination page (if the user is viewing the third page of the catalog, the number “3” should not be clickable);
• at the last item in the breadcrumbs (if there is an active circular link on the last element of the chain, then you might think that a click would take you back a step; in the opposite situation, if the last item is not clickable, this helps the user understand where exactly he is).
The presence of cyclic transitions in itself does not affect the evaluation of the site by search engines. But a large number of looped elements prevents search robots from indexing the site, since the same page is viewed many times. This slows down work with the entire site.