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Just to make sure there's not a technical issue, the page isn't noindexed, or you don't have an images directory blocked in robots.txt, correct?

Thanks. I'm calling Google broken! or at least my version. Not only can I not see my site at all, there are 2 pages from the same cheap flights website and another holiday company I've never heard of (it's my job to hear of them!) Very strange...

Hi Chris, Internal linking is an important but not over beneficial part of optimising your site. Typically a good navigation, possibly a meaningful footer (with links) and breadcrumbs can be helpful for a users navigation. These approaches account for most of the internal linking on a site. When running with these approaches, I would always recommend text links (avoid images where possible) and ensure above all it gives the user the best experience. For your example above, writing Pink widgets | Blue widgets | Green widgets in the nav might take up to much real estate and look a little sloppy, try a drop down with the main category 'widgets' and run the colours as sub categories. Having a site structure www.example.com/widgets/blue will help to define widgets are an important concept on your site  while also highlighting that you have Pink widgets | Blue widgets | Green widgets. It will be assumed that for the product pages in this example, engaging unique content is available. That said, if you see the need I would also encourage you to have internal link within your content, WHERE RELEVANT. I have seen to many sites, simply go through their content and pick out the popular keywords linking all over the place. If it helps the user (possibly by defining an unusual term OR refering to a service OR product described on a different page) it's worth doing. One of my pet hates is finding a keyword on page that links to itself (same URL) because it is a keyword that is being targeted. As a user it's frustrating and personally I immediately leave sites running this practice. You don't have to continually link to your desired page with the same keywords, in fact it's discouraged. Google are becoming increasingly better at understanding intent, therefore do what is best for your visitors and you will ensure that your site enjoys longevity in search rankings... Best of success, Dan

Depending on your PageRank it's advisable to have less than 100 links per page. Cutting down on the amount of links you have per page increases the amount of "link juice" given to each link. However it sounds like what you're asking is more of a usability issue more than an SEO one. I would have to see an example of a page you're talking about to give a more precise answer.

Thanks for the reply. Yep, it's what I thought. This must have caught a lot of people out since there were no pages to start with. I guess I'll keep the profile going as long as possible but focus on the page

It won't hurt you in normal circumstances; however in a 100 link rule, I would certainly avoid it. Best practices has taught me that any other cloned link will be skipped over and will not add any additional weight to a particular page. It would be more for usability score if anything. *I would stick to the 100 link rule for each page and be unique with those links.

Did they offer you hard cash for the chance to post an article with links or did they just ask for the chance to put a guest post on the site? The first is not permitted but the second is legitimate outreaching and is how to world functions. That said I don't think there is a way you can easily report someone for doing the first method.

From my original post: "One idea that just occured to me would be to rename the image and set up a 301 in the .htaccess. Would that work?" ...so I'll take half the compliment - great minds and all that!

Thanks for the replies. Sound advice. Good news is the other directory where it was posted with modified links have taken it down on the back of a Google cached copy I sent them. I don't mind writing, I sometimes even enjoy it. Rewriting though - anything to not have to!

Thanks for the replies. It's kind of what I feel - I can't really bring myself to start swapping links with 'Bulgarian dog widget' sites! I had just been assuming that the value of a reciprocal link was pretty much null if the two sites were of similar standing - IMHO that's how it should be. I link to sites that I like, that's the way it should work. Having said all that, I do have some more targeted, less precious sites that I might set up a 'useful links, / resources / our friends or whatever euphemism is favoured these days. But, I draw the line at some of the off-topic junk I see on my competitors.