Summary of Anchor Text and Hash Tags

[dvansant]

This a summary of my understanding of anchor text and hash tags, along with a question. I'm looking for confirmation of my assumptions and an answer to the question. Here we go:

1. Given these two links on a page in order, Google will use the anchor text "first"

a) First

b) a) Second

2. Given these two links on a page in order, Google will use the anchor text "Second"

a) First

b) Second

3. Given these three links on a page in order, Google will use the anchor text "Second" and "Third"

a) First

b) Second

c) Third

Is this consistent with your understanding of using hash tags to get around the first link rule?

Here's my question:

If I have the following 4 links on a page, does 50% of the link juice go to Page A and 50% to Page B; OR 25% to Page A and 75% to page B; OR something else?

www.example.com/Page-A.html

www.example.com/Page-B.html#anchor1

www.example.com/Page-B.html#anchor2

www.example.com/Page-B.html#anchor3

Thanks in advance.

[Cyrus-Shepard]

First of all, great question. The problem is that anchor text optimization isn't tested nearly enough by search engine professionals, and that Google evolves quickly, so it's hard to know what the best practice is or what benefits can be gained by this type of tweaking.

To address your individual examples, there is conflicting evidence.

1. This is correct

2. This experiment showed that both anchors would count in this example. But this experiment showed the opposite as did this one - indicating Google would index both anchors

3. A similar situation with this example. My best guess is all anchors would count, but it's hard to say.

There are some nuances in your question worth exploring. We can't really say how Google will flow link juice through these 4 links. (my pure guess is that pure PageRank will be spread equal among the 2, but this is only speculation.) But more importantly, there are other factors that will determine the value of these links, including:

• Position on the page - Links higher up tend to pass more weight than links further down
• Navigation vs. Content links - Where links placed in the body of context carry more weight than boilerplate (repeated links)
• Context of the links. For example, a link contained within an advertising block may not carry very much weight.
• And more... This article by Rand lays it out pretty good.

These factors have the potential to far outweigh traditional PageRank sculpting techniques you may consider. It's a fascinating area of study, and I hope we can quantify it better in the future with more experimentation.