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    4. Why would Open Site Explorer say some internal links are images when in the source code they're text?

    Why would Open Site Explorer say some internal links are images when in the source code they're text?

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    • debi_zyx
      debi_zyx last edited by

      Hi, All!

      I was looking at OSE for one of my client's site's pages, and I saw that all internal links were said to be images.  I was pretty sure their menu was CSS, and all the links were text.  So I did "fetch as Googlebot" and looked in the resultant code of one of the homepage to see the main navigation bar. The navigation link for one of those pages looked like this:

      `onmouseover="doMenu2on(this);">[](http://www.mysite.com/solution_sub.asp?ID=8)` [```
      <code>![](images/arrow6.gif)Anchor Text Here</code>
      ```](http://www.mysite.com/solution_sub.asp?ID=8)
      ```
      
      The nav link for a page that does show internal anchor text in OSE looks like this:
      
      

      onmouseover="doMenu2on(this);">[](http://www.mysite.com/solution.asp?ID=5) [```
      <code>Anchor Text Here</code>

      So there is an image in the link (it's the little arrow before the text to indicate a sub-category), but the anchor text comes right after it.  Is Linkscape (and therefore potentially Google) seeing them as two different links to the same page and only counting the first?  But it's all wrapped within the same <a></a>tags.

      Any ideas on if this is a bug in Linkscape, or a real issue, and what should be done?  Thanks!

      Aviva``

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • AlanMosley
        AlanMosley last edited by

        I cant say how google will; see it, but i assume you ae correct, it will see it as a image link. i would either move the image to outside the link, or use alt text

        dont waste the chance for link text.

        go WMT and see if the link text is in the list of link text (links to your site)

        KeriMorgret 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • KeriMorgret
          KeriMorgret @AlanMosley last edited by

          Aviva, were you able to see these links in Google Webmaster Tools? What did they say?

          debi_zyx 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • debi_zyx
            debi_zyx @KeriMorgret last edited by

            Thanks for the interest, Keri. It was a few weeks ago, so it's hard to remember now. I think GWT did mention that anchor text - but I'm not 100% certain. Either way, I asked the webmaster to add alt text to the arrows for each menu item, so we'll see what happens. Aviva

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
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