Linking to an internal page - is one link enough?

[fargo1999]

Let's say I have a small website and have only 2 pages: index.html and article.html. Does it matter for ranking that from article.html I link once to the index page versus more times (using different anchor text)? Or search engines only take one link and they ignore the other internal links to the same page? In other words, when I internally link many times to one page, do search engines "think" this page must be really important and may even give credit to my own anchor text?

I noticed some sites link to their home pages using different anchor texts and sometimes they link multiple times from the same page.

[tedster]

There's been some difference of opinion about this - here's my view. If the linking is done moderately and naturally, with the visitor in mind, then there's no problem and there is evidence that the variation in anchor text can help just a bit. But if this kind of linking is done many times trying to force the internal page to rank for many keywords, that may be penalized.

In your case, with one internal page, it has to be seen as the most important inner page anyway. Placing lots of keywords in anchor text on the home page might well end up having the home page rank for those keywords rather than the internal page - if it doesn't end up attracting a penalty. I would not do it.

[skweb]

I think it is fair to use footwear, shoes, sandals, slippers, etc. in links to a page but I prefer to use just one link per page. In other words, you might want to put in a few hours of work and create new pages so that you can use other keywords in a more natural manner.

[fargo1999]

Thank you for your replies. Obviously it's not possible to be 100% sure if it works better or not; I guess I'll have to watch sites or do my own experiment on that.

[johnnie]

I always try to set up my internal navigation in such a manner, that every page is accessible in at least two navigation paths. I define a path as a unique trajectory that takes the visitor to its target in a maximum of three clicks.

[Marcia]

There are some people who insist that it's only the very first anchor text on a page to another that will count, and that any anchor text to the same page after the first will be ignored.

Opinions?

[Slinger]

Yes Marcia, just a few months ago, I dug deep into the rules about this very topic and I read that only the first link is counted as far as passing Page Rank juice.

[tedster]

In trying to test this, most people I know of have not checked both factors - the PageRank vote and anchor text influence. It makes plenty of sense to me that two links to the same url from the same page would not double the PR vote, but when I tested last year, I did find anchor text influence from both links.

[kostej]

Any news regarding your testing, Tedster? I found many occurences of several links with various anchors pointing from homepage to the same internal page and I plan to remove some of them. What do you think?

[tedster]

I can't claim definite results. I tried to test on a existing domain, and realized that I would need to build out an entirely new domain to test accurately. I just didn't have the steam to do that yet.

But I'd recommend this: if the links make sense for your visitors, then leave them in place. If they were only there to try to influence Google, I'd say remove them.

[BradleyT]

What about a sitewide navigation link and in-content link on the same page? It seems to me that the link in the content does pass anchor text weight.