CMS: Which Link Does Google Count?

[jk3210]

Geez, after all these years I feel like I should know this one, but since I've never really tested it, here goes...

In a CMS where you have post excerpts on the Home page, if you have a link leading off-site in the Home page excerpt, and the same link in the post, which link does Google count?

Both?

Only the post link?

Are the two links averaged out?

[zehrila]

Are you talking about internal link? given that your internal url and linking structure is fine enough and your top pages are quicker to be found, you should not worry too much.

As far as external links are concerned, first link in the document is valued more i believe.

[zehrila]

Beside, homepage excerpt has temporary life as it gets pushed down with new data, i would like to think the link in the post would stand out more after the excerpt is pushed down with new posts.

[jk3210]

I'm referring to an off-site link to another domain. If both the Home page excerpt and the actual post both contain an the same off-site link, which one does Google count?

[tedster]

If the links are on different pages, then I'd think they both get counted. Given the current approach of a "reasonable surfer", it sounds to me like both are likely to get clicks. But how (or even if) they get combined is a question only a Google engineer could answer. I wouldn't even know how to test for that.

[Sgt_Kickaxe]

urls are evaluated independently of one another so both links likely count. There may also be a 'related sites' metric in which Google checks to see if the sites they believe 'should' link to you actually do. If that's the case only one of the links was needed to confirm it.

So it depends what is being "counted".

[deadsea]

Urls are not evaluated completely independently. The first link you have to another site carries a lot more weight than the 1000th time you link to that same other site. Google became wise to sites that link out from too many pages to the same site.

In this case with two links from different pages, I'd expect them to both count. Maybe not quite the weight that only one link would have, but they should both count.

[zehrila]

@deadsea

Google became wise to sites that link out from too many pages to the same site.

If you are talking about sitewide links, then sure, but i hardly doubt its an issue if site A links to site B from the pages it self. In my niche, when one site breaks tech story, couple of other tech sites cover the same topic and link back to source and its happening almost every other day, they are all doing pretty fine.

[deadsea]

Even for non-sitewide links where relevant pages on one site link to different relevant pages on another site in the content, there isn't a lot of value beyond ten links from what I can tell.