In a video posted by Matt Cutts, he talks about dropping Google’s guideline of penalizing websites with 100 links per page but clearly discards having tons of links too. Although the rule had been dropped before 2008, but many continue to believe that crossing 100 links over a page can penalize them. Here we tell you the underlying facts regarding links limit on a page:
Why 100 links per page?
The basic principle behind 100 links per page has matured from the fact that Google indexes about 100 kilobytes per page.Thus 1 link per kb is allowable and having below 100 links on a page does not categorize you as spammy.
The guideline is dropped but Matt makes it clear in the video that Google can take action against you if your links appear a spam. Now the question arises:
How many links one can have on a page?
The simple formula behind links presence on a page is to offer value added substance. If you are offering that to users then you are not spammy.
Nick Bilton, columnist of New York Times prepared a chart that shows sites which have more than hundred links too, but Google does not penalize them. This is so because it is not the count necessarily, which defines a web spam. It is the quality and reasonability of links on a page that pushes Google to penalize or not penalize you. It is the quality guidelines that define links as spam or non-spam.
Can one have more than 100 links?
Yes, you can have more than 100 links too, if they make sense. Google does not discard user experience and if you are offering that and have substantial reasons, then having more than 100 is not a question of concern.
What are the disadvantages of keeping more than 100 or too many links?
→ Matt also told that when too many links are offered the PageRank gets divided too, so if you have hundreds of them, it will be divided by the hundreds only.
→ It disinterests the users too and Google might not index beyond 100 kb.
The crux is- you will not be penalized, even after having too many links, if you are not deceiving search engines. So just be wary of quality guidelines and reasonability of links.