Site redesign - importance of internal links?

[rasmusg]

On my site I have an important landing page that brings in a lot of traffic. It of course have some direct links to it, but also have two links from all other pages on my site. One image link with alt text spot on the phrase I want to found on. Later in the HTML I have a text link with no keywords in anchor text.

Now I have to redesign the site and are curious if removing the text link on all pages will hurt ranking?

[tedster]

There has been some testing that seems to show that only the "first link counts" when there are two on a page - so this change should be OK. However, Google is so complex these days that it's not easy to say anything for sure - and in all situations.

Are you just doing an on-page redesign but preserving your existing URLs?

[rasmusg]

Thanks Tedster for your comments.

I have heard about the "first link counts" but was unsure if it was also the case if the first was an image. But I guess you are saying that it is the same thing.

I am preserving the existing URLs and also most of the content. Just changing some h1 and h2 tags.

[tedster]

One reported study showed that the second link counts too, if it includes a page fragment identifier (the hash tag #) I haven't verified that personally, but it makes sense when you think about the common style of FAQ pages.

[Robert Charlton]

I have heard about the "first link counts" but was unsure if it was also the case if the first was an image.

In one of the tests I've seen, if the first link is an image, it takes priority if it has anchor text, but not if it doesn't have anchor text... so again, in the situation you describe, you're OK.

If the image has an empty ( alt="" ) alt attribute, this study suggests that the anchor text for the next link in the code would be counted.

Generally, the image link being discussed is the global image logo the links to home. Other considerations might include location on the displayed page vs source ordered code... and the Reasonable Surfer model with regard to global nav links as noted here [webmasterworld.com...]

...this model is perhaps in part why contextual paragraph links now seem to have more effect than global nav links