Second anchor text on page. Does it count?
-
Back in 2008 there was "proof" that the anchor text of a second link on a page would not be counted for the anchor text.
In the MOZ starter guide it is still advocated: https://mza.seotoolninja.com/learn/seo/anchor-textBUT in 2014 it was reported on searchengine land:
http://searchengineland.com/googles-matt-cutts-one-page-two-links-page-counted-first-link-192718
That the second link might be counted. Direct link to the matt cuts video from 28 may 2014
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5AsLWIuNNMU(Even in 2010 there where already some different opinions and work arounds.
https://mza.seotoolninja.com/blog/the-first-link-counts-rule-and-the-hash-sign
https://mza.seotoolninja.com/ugc/3-ways-to-avoid-the-first-link-counts-rule (2011)Question: did anyone recently test this recently?
The deeper questions are:
1:is the LINK value counted if you have more that one link on a page to another page?
2: is the Anchor text counted if you have more than one anchortext to another page?The most interresting i have is that i have a menu from which i link to my important pages. Does it help to put extra links in the content to specific pages?
-
Hi Stramark,
How did you get on in your testing? Just wondering what the latest on this is for 2015-2016?Thanks.
-
I have done a test of my own.
I used a very important page on my website.
The page has not been changed for more than 2 months.
The page has a link from the main menu with the money keyword "zoekmachine marketing"
I used the blogpart of my website to add 5 extra links like this: https://www.stramark.nl/zoekmachine-marketing/#4-p-zoekmachine-marketingI ran the keyword ranking on the specific anchor text on the 9th of july, and today again.
The result is significantly positive. I will monitor for a few extra days
-
This is also a question of usability / user experience. If your page incorporating in-article anchor links is laid out well and has engaged users clicking those links to explore the different sections of the page, you're likely getting a lower bounce rate and better numbers in-terms of users bouncing back to the search results from your page.
In ATPs case, those links were likely causing navigational confusion and/or potential keyword stuffing flags. Cleaning them up served his site better.
In either case, I don't think it's a simple question of solely how many links count, especially in real world usage. Cheers!
-
Hi Stramark,
This is an interesting debate that I have tried to test myself to some extent and found some mixed results.
A site I took over had category pages linked off the home page in 3 locations, the main nav bar, in the content, and in the footer. The anchor text was different in all 3. I made relatively minor changes but the main one was to make the anchor text the same and remove the footer links. (Basically avoiding any threat of being tagged for spammy links with different keywords)
3 Out of the 8 or so categories saw visible improvements with the removal and standardisation of the anchor text. Very few other changes were made to these pages or the site.
This change leads me to believe that not only can more than 1 link have an impact, but different anchor text on the multiple links also can, multiple links are not simply ignored. However, The big debate i guess is whether that is a good or bad impact, since cleaning them up and removing them helped my pages.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
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
-
Directory Listings no longer counted in Backlinks?
Interesting situation when I looked at Google Search Console this morning, I found that back-links from directories had dropped off and am wondering if anyone else is seeing this? Specifically, I am in Australia and had links from Yellowpages.com.au and Truelocal.com.au to my primary domain. Interestingly, Yellow Pages had gone a bit crazy recently in that the number of links to my site seemed to balloon exponentially from about 50 when I first listed to 700+ to 1500+ to 1800+ and then the balloon popped. Truelocal in contrast was only ever showing the 1 link. There have not been any changes from my end, and I only ever had one listing in these directories so not sure what generated all these extra links in Yellow Pages. Anyone else in Australia noticed a sudden drop off in Google Backlinks from Directories? If not it may just be a temporary blip.
Link Building | | Excal0 -
Competing for a specific keyword beyond on-page factors
Hello, I am trying to rank better for 'keyword X', a critical query that I'm outside the top 50 for, though we grade out at an A via Moz's on-page grader. One of our main competitors ranks #1 for this keyword, despite not using 'keyword X' once in their meta title, body content, or image tags. My assumption is that the volume and quality of backlinks to the competitor's site is driving their high ranking. If this is the case, how can I identify backlinking opportunities to compete better? Are there other factors I'm overlooking here? Thanks
Link Building | | Sorgod0 -
400$ to sponsoring an Event page, does it worth the money?
I'm thinking of sponsoring an Event page related to a campaign topic. DOMAIN AUTHORITY
Link Building | | wppseo
49 /100 PAGE AUTHORITY
49 /100 Type of link: Linked Image, with other 30 Followed External Linked Images in the same page.
Page with a very long life. Cost of the sponsorship:
300 Euros
410 US Dollars It is worth?0 -
Updating old dated pages or making new ones?
Hey All, I'm working on a project that relies on deals with specific dates like a fair or rodeo. However, fairs happen every year during the same time. I'm not sure if I should delete the old ones or updated them with new information. What do you suggest?
Link Building | | CobraJones950 -
Should you ever change your anchor text ?
Hello I have a question about anchors. I have done all my own seo over the last 3 years, with tools from various sites. I had an seo audit done about 1 month ago and was told my link profile was very natural. They had one recommendation. To go back over my link profile and ask some webmasters if they would change the anchor from the name of my site or my url to a more seo friendly phrase. This seemed logical. I never did a lot of anchor text just name or site or url. Anyway, over last 4 weeks I have messaged several webmasters and asked to have anchor text changed to something along the lines of the keywords Im targeting. Tedious task to go through all the links but I changed several anchors to what was recommended. I was also out link building at same time. These last links and I got several of them all natural links after 16 hours work days. Are all will seo friendly anchors, because as Ive gotten more experienced my links have gotten more in lines of what is "seo friendly" or at least I hoped. I asked one webmaster to change my anchor and he warned me I would be slapped with a penguin penalty and wouldn't recommend I do this. I have already done this to several of my links. Then today the new seomoz update came up and I was down on DA and PA by 3-4 points. Do these have anything to do with one another and have I been given bad advice and can I fix it if I have ? Sorry about long post just a little confused. I don't want to step into penalty land and not know I did.
Link Building | | New1000ad0 -
Minimum Page Rank to get a link
Is there a minimum Page Rank that we have to be aware of when looking to get a link from a webpage?
Link Building | | echo10 -
Linking to Google Place page??
I'm wondering if anybody has tried and had success in improving search rankings by creating links to Google Place pages. What say you?
Link Building | | bdiddy0 -
Longer Tail Keyword for URL and Anchor text
Hello If I am trying to rank for the term blue widgets as a primary, and also the term shiny blue widgets , and big shiny blue widgets as secondary - would the url /blue-widgets or /shiny-blue-widgets or /big-shiny-blue-widgets be better (all else equal) Would the word shiny / big dilute or affect of KW in the domain for the rankings for blue widgets (all esle equal) Regarding anchor text of inbound links, if the anchor text is shiny blue widgets, is that going to help me rank for both queries "blue widgets" and "shiny blue widgets" equally? (all else equal), or would including shiny, affect my ranking for "bliue widgets" Or is it better to keep the anchor text as just blue widgets (of course we could vary it) but Im trying to get a feel for how that would work as we are builfing some links I can control the anchor text. I hope this was clear enough Thanks Sam
Link Building | | Impact-2015550