If I had a nickel for every time I read somewhere that having more than 100 links on any page would send up flags in Google, I might be able to pay off my mortgage by now...

While I believe there is some truth to this, as in, if you have a FFA (Free For All) site, or a link farm where anyone can add links, then I could see where this would be detrimental to your rankings.

However, if you have relevant links on your page pointing to other sites similarly themed to your site, how can you be penalized? Who's Google to say how many relevant sites there are about your topic?

How could Google (or any other search engine for that matter) tell us, the web users, who their friends are?

Suppose I have a website about the NFL. Maybe I have a page that has every player listed, and a link to their stats - currently, that would be around 500 links. All those links would be relevant, and all the links are pointing to unique content. How could any search engine surmise and penalize this?

The Internet is growing at such a rate that it's very conceivable that the search engines will never be able to index every piece of virtual real estate the web has to offer. And with growth, comes more places to be found, and in return, more places to link to.

I've read about this topic in many forums and people always want proof. I researched and found two extremely well ranked sites that easily surpass the 100 link limit...

http://www.freepint.com/gary/direct.htm

http://www.refdesk.com/

The point is, FORGET about all the nonsense that Google spits out about a 100-link limit. That's like your parents saying that you can only have 100 friends, no more or else you will be penalized!

Being that the Internet is a social environment, how else would someone learn or find out about a new site? Advertising will alert you to new products and services, but they won't be able to tell you how bug zappers work. The search engines need our links. They can't grow their index without us. Therefore, exercise your right to link!

Where do you guys learn all this stuff?

Gina,

It's a well kept secret, but most of these guys graduated from Hogwartz!

Bill

You can have more than 100 links per page... Google will only follow first 100... thats the REAL rule. No penalties or nothing, just ignore links 101,102,103, etc.

And, if you want your customers (especially if it's a store) to use the links - don't expect them to go looking through a page with 100's of disorganized links.

I organize my links and keep the pages at, usually 25-50 links, because I'm getting traffic (and sales) from my partners link pages and hopefully, I'm sending them some.