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 
