Positioning of links on page

Is it better for a link to be in one place versus another?

[pauldmitri]

I have a guy who is telling me that links that are on the top left section of a web page are seen as more important by G than links, say, on the bottom of the page. Also he says that links in the interior of the page are better than links that are near the outside borders.

Does anyone have any ideas?

[Terabytes]

I'll probably get mauled since this is the first time I'm "speculating" on a topic...

If I'm way off...I suppose I deserve it... 8-)

IMHO.... since the HTML is read from the top of the page to the bottom by the SE's...(literally)

And since I believe they treat the on page info similar to a newspaper... (meaning that your most relevant information is usually at the top of the page...like the headline)

why would anyone place their most important info at the bottom of the page? They wouldn't...)

then....possibly links placed higher on the page would mean "more" than links at the bottom...

<pure>speculation</pure>

Waits for the possible onslaught...

Did I mention you guys ROCK!
:)

[Conard]

Unless the guy that is telling you this actually works for Google it is pure speculation.

If you look at the logic in the reply above mine, it does make sense. That being said, it would take a bunch of testing to prove something like this and what the testing would show is, it may be true for the months of the test but fail for months after the test or visa versa.
Kind of like trying to hit a moving target.

[justdave]

I don't believe the SEs place any higher value on a link that is at the top of the page. From a user's point of view, the link at the top is going to be deemed more important than a link at the bottom. From an SE perspective, a link is a link regardless of location. There are other factors involved that really contribute to the importance of the link.

That's just my thought.

[hobbnet]

It's definitely better to have your links at the top of a page for reasons not relevant to search engines. If your link is in a highly visible area it is more likely to get clicked on. So, getting a well placed link can increase your traffic regardless of what Google thinks. This idea is fairy simple but I think we tend to forget some of the basics in the SEO world.

[sugarrae]

>>> From an SE perspective, a link is a link regardless of location.

I would have to disagree with that. A set of five links below the copyright on every page of a site would *scream* pagerank buy to me.

[justdave]

Well, that's true. THere are certain obvious footprints that a search engine can use to distinguish a link from a PR buy. I don't think it matters to a SE if a link is placed on the left, right, middle, top, or bottom. The link will be read and followed (unless instructed not to) - it just may not be given any value based on certain factors.

[trillianjedi]

A set of five links below the copyright on every page of a site would *scream* pagerank buy to me.

Yup. There are also other "patterns" which would scream "unnatural" to any SE with a minor amount of intelligence.

Is it better for a link to be in one place versus another?

Ultimately, the SE's will be looking for links that are in the best place for the user. Each link is looked at as a vote, remember that. Is it really a "go here and take a look at this Mr User" vote if the link is buried in some strange place or surrounded by a mass of other links?

Chasing their tail on this one will probably involve a lot of work and a lot of constant changing and shifting around of page layout.

In my opinion, it's not worth it - sit and wait for them at the finishing line instead.

TJ