Forward Link Dilution v. PageRank Dilution

How the number of links on a page affects link juice

[potentialgeek]

I didn't see a recent discussion here on the topic of how the number of forward links on one web page affects the value of each forward link.

The issue of PageRank link juice has been discussed at length in many forums, starting years ago. In fact it seems to have been part of the original Google PageRank algo in about 1998 in the paper by Larry Page? Fast forward to 2009.

Matt Cutts recently wrote:

So how might Google treat pages with well over a hundred links? If you end up with hundreds of links on a page, Google might choose not to follow or to index all those links. At any rate, you’re dividing the PageRank of that page between hundreds of links, so each link is only going to pass along a minuscule amount of PageRank anyway.

I'm not interested much in PageRank, but I want to know if the same basic principle applies for SERPs. In other words, if a web page has one forward link, does it give more link juice for that link than if it has two forward links? Is the link juice automatically divided equally? Or does each link get the same juice? Could links near the end of a long page be ignored?

I'm asking because I'm starting to submit my sites to directories. Some directories have pages with a few forward links; whereas others have many links. I'd like to know if I should stick with the pages that have a few links, and if other sites are later added to the page, it can cause my site to go lower in SERPs due to link dilution.

Has Cutts or a Google rep ever addressed this question? Do you have any conclusions from your own experience?

[wheel]

Y'know, I was wondering the very same thing yesterday. I don't have an answer, but I don't see the reason why if a page is an authority and it links out, why then that page needs to lose some of it's authority as a result of the linking out. Pages could pass PR/trust/authority without having their own diluted.

However based on the success the PR hoarders are having with nofollow, it would seem that linking out does still dilute the potential ranking factors of a page - since not linking out can help rankings.

[potentialgeek]

In a Google interview [groups.google.com] (Nov 2008):

Q. Is it true that the fewer the links FROM your website, the more influence they have on the sites receiving those links?

JohnMu[eller]/Google: PageRank is split up over the links from a page, but I would recommend not concentrating on this (as you won't be able to "measure" and act upon it anyway) and instead making your site as usable as possible for your visitors.

That doesn't really answer the question--the question didn't actually refer to PR. I'll have to keep looking. I can see arguments for and against forward link juice dilution.

[piatkow]

I have always concentrated on links that will bring natural traffic in their own right and do just fine in the serps for key search arguements.

[Makaveli2007]

In other words, if a web page has one forward link, does it give more link juice for that link than if it has two forward links? Is the link juice automatically divided equally? Or does each link get the same juice?

I HIGHLY doubt that each link gets the same amount of link juice. I used to read that a lot, but on the other hand I've also read a lot that SEs try to determine how important a webmaster thinks the links is, and that links in certain spots pass less link juice (this one seems very reasonable. If I was a search engineer I wouldn't give the same amount of link authority to a fat bold link in a spot where the webmaster put it, because he wants it to be seen...as I'd give to a link that's in the footer).

Only one can be true. My money is on the latter, and in that case link juice would not be split up equally.