Link to the same page results in penalty

an interesting observation

[john5]

Since the last update I have a few pages that have not disappeared from the index, but they do not show up for the main target keyword any more. For other keywords or keyword combinations the page still has good ranking positions. I am sure I finally know the reason. I had implemented a somewhat tricky dynamic routine which could result on some pages in a link to itself. And the link text is penalized by not showing up in the SERPS for this page.

I have about 5 pages affected by this kind of (soft) penalty and these are exactly the pages where this stupid "link to yourself" constellation had happened. So I am 99% sure that this IS the reason.

[JayC]

I'd be pretty skeptical that linking a page to itself would cause any kind of penalty. It's actually very, very common for every page to include the same nav bar or the same set of text links, including the link to that page itself.

Are you sure there isn't something else about your "tricky dynamic routine" that might cause trouble?

[Edit: added the following]

but they do not show up for the main target keyword any more. For other keywords or keyword combinations the page still has good ranking positions.

Google, of course, has no idea what your "main target keyword" is, and so would have no way of penalizing only those specific search results. Nor would they have any reason to. I'd look instead for other changes that may have caused this: for example, before implementing these "dynamic routines" did you have your keywords in link anchor text? Do you monitor your PageRank, and has that changed?

The level of competitiveness for any particular search term could influence how much any given change will affect those search results. So really any number of factors could be behind what you're seeing, but I don't believe it could be caused by simply linking a page to itself as such.

[End Edit]

[edited by: JayC at 11:02 pm (utc) on July 21, 2002]

[deejay]

Have to agree with JayC on this one.

All my main pages have a link to themselves on the page because I use a standard navigation across the site.

No penalty noted on any of my sites.

[john5]

The pattern is so obvious. About 5 pages that showed the main target keyword in position 1 to 10 for months. And then suddenly these pages do not show up any more for these mainkeywords, even if I narrow the seach down by adding my company name. And these are precisely the pages where this "link to itself" combination happened. And the punished keywords/keyword combinations are identical with the text in these links. I am very sure that this did it.

[Marcia]

Absolutely, on some sites every page has a link to itself with the common navigation across the site.

So those same pages show up for other keywords, but not that particular word? Was there something in that routine that had different text show up at different times? And are there pages outside of that group that link to those pages using those words in the link text?

[john5]

Hello Marcia

it was a little promotion box like the Google Adword box. I had about 20 boxes with different text and two links in them - mostly different links. The boxes are shown on about 200 pages based on contents AND on random.
The pages affected have not gone completely out of the Google index. But the keyword of the anchortext in my random boxes has completely disappeared for these pages to which this link showed.
The argument with the standard navigation bar, which I use myself of course, does indeed not speak for my theory. But the pattern is just so strikingly obvious. It must have something to do with it.