Link Product Thumb & Product Name with same anchor link?
-
We have an issue on one of our sites we're monitoring a campaign for that seems to have TOO many links on each page. I think the biggest reason is that each product listing on each category page has two separate anchor links into that page. One for the thumb and one for the name. So even though there should only be 60-70 links on each category page, that amount is being inflated because each product listing technically is being split into two separate links.
Question is, should I place the thumbnail and name within the same anchor link? We do this on a lot of other sites we operate, but I'm not sure what's a better strategy. It would seem to me that it would be better to have a single anchor link that shares the thumb and product name.
-
It is unusual to endorse one of the shortest answers on the page, but Axel is to-the-point and, IMO, correct in this case. You don't want to paginate too heavily because that creates more clicks to get to all of your products. In fact, Google even recommends using a View All canonical page if it doesn't affect performance (load time) too much.
The first link anchor is what counts so I respectfully disagree with dittoeffect, unless you were to link to the image on the product page from the image on the category page using a Named Anchor hashtag (could be a good thing to test).
You don't want a bunch of iframes on your category page either. Keep it simple. You run an honest eCommerce site, not an uber-competitive affiliate website where you have to put links into a redirect script that goes through a directory that's blocked in the robots.txt file, etc...
Make the alt text and link text the same unless you are testing the named anchor link idea mentioned above.
And as Alan Gray said, test. These are all just opinions based on experience until you test.
-
Whatever you do, you should test and measure.
Only then will you know if it makes a difference.
There don't seem to be any definitive answers.
After you do that, you could tell others the results of your experiments.
-
too much overhead in a productive space.
I would go Text & picutre in one link
-
Ted, why don't you add pagination to your product pages?
You might list 10 items on a page and link the thumbnail image and product title to the item details page without any issues.
-
This is a really good question. Actually what I think is best is actually keeping the links separate and using the appropriate and most descriptive text for the page the text link points to and using the next best phrase in the image for the alt text. ex if you have a product called "big red dog house" then that would be the text link anchor text and the image alt text would be "large red dog house".
To solve the issue of too many links you should create subcategories within the categories to display fewer listings per page to reduce the number of links.
Now if you are worried about burring products make sure to divide the categories as evenly as you can so they do not go too deep. So if you have 70 products that were on the "dog houses" page try to make the dog houses page lead to a page with two links to categories "small dog houses" with about half the products and "large dog houses" with the other half. this way you create a tree of sorts (you can make many categories). The idea is to layer your navigation to guide the user towards what they want to find while structuring your navigation to give your products the attention they deserve from and seo stand point.
hope this helps
-
Putting the product name & image in the same anchor is the best bet. You can put the image anchor in javascript without taking the image out of the search index.
-
Yeah, but I want the image to be linked. I don't want to do away with the image links in the search engines eyes. I just want to link to both the most seo friendly way possible. That's why I figured placing the thumbnail and the product name within the same anchor link could possibly be the best bet. Our images actually rank fairly well in google images so doing what you suggest would be suicide in that respect, either for the image, or for the anchor text which is likely way more important.
-
You could make one of the links a javascript link or embed in an iframe and exclude the iframe files from robots.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Product Descriptions (SEO)
So I would like a few opinions. How long should a product description be? Enough to get the point across? 100 words? 800 words? Over detailed? Any advice would be appreciated.
On-Page Optimization | | mattl990 -
Is it important to have the brand name in all page title?
Hi Moz community, May be this is an obvious question but as i am not sure about the answer.... I prefer to ask you! If yes, is "keywords" - "BRAND NAME " the good option? If not, is there any rule? Thanks a lot, Amaury
On-Page Optimization | | adbds19730 -
Internal Links Catalog (too many links)
I have several car catalogs that I use to direct my customers to the parts for their vehicle. Example:http://www.mikesfuel.com/Acura_c_69.html My customers like the approach. They can easily find their vehicle, then scan the columns for the parts that they need. Each part number is a link and the part numbers are sometimes posted several times in one column. All of the links are internal to the web site. My fear is that this is going to be treated as a link farm. I have considered using a PDF catalog with links, but that is going to be hugely expensive. What do you think? Thanks for any help Mike
On-Page Optimization | | mikescarb0 -
Is thumbnail text crawlable/lists of product names considered as normal copy in terms of keywords?
On a page that lists products (thumbnail text repeating the same word when you sell variations of the same thing) and also has copy at the bottom, are the product names crawlable? Is it better to avoid repeating the keyword in the copy? Can you get penalised for it?
On-Page Optimization | | LawrenceNeal0 -
The "100 links/page recommendation" - Do Duplicate Links Count?
We have way too many links on our homepage. The PageRank Link Juice Calculator (www.ecreativeim.com/pagerank-link-juice-calculator.php) counts them to 300. But all of them are not unique, that is some links point to the same URL. So my question: does the "100 links/page recommendation" refer to all anchors on the page or only to unique link target URLs? I know "100" is just a standard recommendation.
On-Page Optimization | | TalkInThePark0 -
Alt attributes same as jpg name and keywords?
Hi everyone, Quick question: Is it better to have your jpg name and alt text slightly different to your keywords for that particular page, or is it better to have them slightly differently? At the minute I'm doing them all with a variation on the keyphrase I want to optimize for (long tail and all that...). Any input much appreciated!
On-Page Optimization | | CMoore850 -
Internal linking best practice
See example: car rental - sedans - bmw car rental - sedans - audi car rental - sedans - ford (internal links to sedans - audi, ford) or (internal links to suv - bmw) car rental - suv - bmw car rental - suv - audi car rental - suv - ford (internal links to suv- audi, ford) or (internal links to sedans- bmw...) Should I cross link only between the product page under each category or can I link between different products under different categories? From a user point of view, I think it will give him more options if he wants to choose the same brand but a bigger vehicle although I have read numerous posts saying that we should be internally linking most of the time within the same category. User experience or SEO?
On-Page Optimization | | echo10 -
On page internal link text
Hi, I'm in the process of rebuilding/designing an existing well ranking niche bespoke software site and have the following question - In the footer, I'm planning on linking to the main landing pages (blue widget software, red widget software etc theres about 7 in total). In these links I want to know if its best to have the word "software" in each link as I'm scared of it looking spamy. We sell custom software, and a lot of the keywords that currently attract traffic (as reported in analytics) end in the word software, for example - blue widget software red widget software In the footer would you end each link with software or not? How much effect would this have on rankings? Thanks in advance.
On-Page Optimization | | JamesJacobs0