Link Juice Inquiry

[WebServiceConsulting.com]

Hello,

So I have a website (example.com).

I have an ajax pop-up (example.com/#example) that I am receiving a bunch of links to.

Since this pop-up (example.com/#example) is on my homepage, are these links giving juice to the homepage, or this pop-up, or both?

[Andy.Drinkwater]

Hi Brandon,

Are you able to post the link here, or send it over to me via PM?

What happens if you take this URL and just paste it into your browser bar? Does that page come up?

-Andy

[WebServiceConsulting.com]

Andy,

If you take the URL and paste it into the browser bar, the homepage shows up, without the pop-up appearing.

[Andy.Drinkwater]

I suspect that the link juice from that won't pass down to the main page, but a check in Open Site Explorer or Webmaster Tools to see if it appear in your inbound links, but I have never seen an occasion where a popup has show up in SERPs, so I wouldn't expect links to a popup to be beneficial at all.

It would be better if you could ask for these links to be directed to your homepage really.

-Andy

[WebServiceConsulting.com]

Via opensite, when I put the URL (example.com/#example), it shows me the exact same reports as if I just put in example.com.

Does that mean the links are providing juice to the homepage?

Can anyone confirm this?

[Vizergy]

I think the best you can hope for is that some of the juice is passing.  I'd strongly recommend taking Andy's advice and try to the links changed (I've followed him here for a while - he knows his stuff)

So this pop up - does it automatically populate the new URL when someone visits the page?  So if someone is going to link to you and they go to copy your URL from their browser is it always with /#example because when they visit the page the pop up is there?

I could see that as potentially being an issue if that is the case.

[WebServiceConsulting.com]

No, the pop-up doesn't automatically show up.

What about 301ing the URL to the homepage? That would pass the juice wouldn't it?

[Andy.Drinkwater]

Thank you Billy

Brandon, I wouldn't advise trying to redirect from a page in this manner. First of all, you will lose link juice with every 301 made (there is always some loss), and secondly, you are trying to redirect for SEO benefits, rather than for the users.

I'm not even sure a 301 from a pop-up back to another page will work correctly - it isn;t something I have ever tried as it isn't something I would do.

Is asking for the links to change not an option?

-Andy

[alankoen123]

From an analysis which was by no means exhaustive, by definition, AJAX controls are extenders. Go to http://www.asp.net/ajaxlibrary/ajaxcontroltoolkitsamplesite/modalpopup/modalpopup.aspx

So, how would they possibly have link juice? Maybe I'm missing something but doesn't seem to be very different from the use of a bookmark on a page -- it's still the page that is garnering the link juice. The bookmark is a component of the page.

I'm old school and I may be missing something! Thanks for a challenging question. - Alan

[JaneCopland]

Hi Brandon,

To the best of our knowledge, Google does not "notice" or count URL content after a hash, meaning that the link juice would stop with www.example.com. It is almost certain that the home page is receiving the benefit of these links.

Cheers,

Jane