Moving position of text link on page

Will it affect ranking?

[seasalt]

Hi:

I tried the WW Site Search on this one and could not find a definitive answer.

A client has several on-topic affiliate links in the lower half of their homepage on a content site. They want me to move the links to the upper half for greater visibility - but still below some of the content. These links would be above some of the internal content links. They currently rank in the 7 - 13 position on Google for relevant keywords and receive a fair amount of traffic.

My question is if I move these links for them (and change nothing else), how much of an impact, if any, can they expect to see in the rankings.

seasalt

[DerekH]

I think we need clarification before we can answer, because the physical position on the screen doesn't necessarily equate to the physical position in the HTML....

Using CSS, one can drive text anywhere on the screen without changing its position in the HTML file.

Even simply using the two-column table trick, one can have two columns of text (for example links and content), but have the right hand column higher in the HTML than the left...

Google indexes by HTML, so that's what you need to be concerned about. Until we know how you lay the page out, I'm not sure we can comment on whether the change is big, small or insignificant...

Sorry to seem as much use as a chocolate teapot, but we need more info!
DerekH

[oodlum]

Even simply using the two-column table trick

DerekH

That sounds interesting. Could you elaborate please? How do you make the right hand column higher in the HTML than the left (without layers or css)?

Could be very useful.

[abates]

There's a {direction: rtl} option you can put on tables using your stylesheet so the columns render in the reverse order (right to left)...

[abates]

oops, missed the "Without css" clause. Never mind. ;)

[oodlum]

abates

Thanks - very useful anyway. Beats layers for the purpose.

[DerekH]

oodlum wrote

That sounds interesting. Could you elaborate please? How do you make the right hand column higher in the HTML than the left (without layers or css)?

Could be very useful.

can't find a web reference to it at the moment, but I know there are plenty.

Here goes in plain English....

To make a screen that has a navigation column on the left and content on the right, using only just HTML and getting the right hand column higher up the HTML do this...
Make a table that's 2 columns by 2 rows.

In the top left cell, put a non-breaking space (or better still, a 1x1 spacer GIF).
In the bottom left cell put your navigation structure.

Now add a ROWSPAN to join the two right hand rows together into one big column, and put your content in there.

The HTML now has three table entries.
1) A spacer from row 1
2) The content from row 1 (and by the span, from row 2)
3) The navigation from row 2

Hope that's clear enough to understand.
DerekH

[oodlum]

Why didn't I think of that? I love it - thanks!