Link Product Thumb & Product Name with same anchor link?
-
We have an issue on one of our sites we're monitoring a campaign for that seems to have TOO many links on each page. I think the biggest reason is that each product listing on each category page has two separate anchor links into that page. One for the thumb and one for the name. So even though there should only be 60-70 links on each category page, that amount is being inflated because each product listing technically is being split into two separate links.
Question is, should I place the thumbnail and name within the same anchor link? We do this on a lot of other sites we operate, but I'm not sure what's a better strategy. It would seem to me that it would be better to have a single anchor link that shares the thumb and product name.
-
It is unusual to endorse one of the shortest answers on the page, but Axel is to-the-point and, IMO, correct in this case. You don't want to paginate too heavily because that creates more clicks to get to all of your products. In fact, Google even recommends using a View All canonical page if it doesn't affect performance (load time) too much.
The first link anchor is what counts so I respectfully disagree with dittoeffect, unless you were to link to the image on the product page from the image on the category page using a Named Anchor hashtag (could be a good thing to test).
You don't want a bunch of iframes on your category page either. Keep it simple. You run an honest eCommerce site, not an uber-competitive affiliate website where you have to put links into a redirect script that goes through a directory that's blocked in the robots.txt file, etc...
Make the alt text and link text the same unless you are testing the named anchor link idea mentioned above.
And as Alan Gray said, test. These are all just opinions based on experience until you test.
-
Whatever you do, you should test and measure.
Only then will you know if it makes a difference.
There don't seem to be any definitive answers.
After you do that, you could tell others the results of your experiments.
-
too much overhead in a productive space.
I would go Text & picutre in one link
-
Ted, why don't you add pagination to your product pages?
You might list 10 items on a page and link the thumbnail image and product title to the item details page without any issues.
-
This is a really good question. Actually what I think is best is actually keeping the links separate and using the appropriate and most descriptive text for the page the text link points to and using the next best phrase in the image for the alt text. ex if you have a product called "big red dog house" then that would be the text link anchor text and the image alt text would be "large red dog house".
To solve the issue of too many links you should create subcategories within the categories to display fewer listings per page to reduce the number of links.
Now if you are worried about burring products make sure to divide the categories as evenly as you can so they do not go too deep. So if you have 70 products that were on the "dog houses" page try to make the dog houses page lead to a page with two links to categories "small dog houses" with about half the products and "large dog houses" with the other half. this way you create a tree of sorts (you can make many categories). The idea is to layer your navigation to guide the user towards what they want to find while structuring your navigation to give your products the attention they deserve from and seo stand point.
hope this helps
-
Putting the product name & image in the same anchor is the best bet. You can put the image anchor in javascript without taking the image out of the search index.
-
Yeah, but I want the image to be linked. I don't want to do away with the image links in the search engines eyes. I just want to link to both the most seo friendly way possible. That's why I figured placing the thumbnail and the product name within the same anchor link could possibly be the best bet. Our images actually rank fairly well in google images so doing what you suggest would be suicide in that respect, either for the image, or for the anchor text which is likely way more important.
-
You could make one of the links a javascript link or embed in an iframe and exclude the iframe files from robots.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Outbound links. External Links.
I have been reading alot on SEO and there is something confusing about having "Outbound links. External Links." on your main ranking page. Some say that We shouldn't have any out bound links. (from Random website) According to Yoast, we should have outbound links. (yoast.com) we should have outbound links but we should add the "no-follow" tag. (from Random website) Q: What should i do and follow?
On-Page Optimization | | kevinbp
If the answer is yes, how many outbound links is an appropriate amount per page?0 -
Are Back Links King
We have worked as closely as possible to the guidelines and advice on this forum, if we compare our on page Analsis with other companies in the same field as ours we have a far better site as far as SEO is concerned, our DA authority is higher and most of our page authority is higher but we just cannot seem to get up to their level in the search engines, one site that is in competiton with us do not use Facebook and also they do not use Twitter very much, I looked at some of their backlinks and their top one which was a blog had not been updated since 2011, over the years we have amassed far more what I would call worthless links as this was the done thing then, how can I get on the right track, are there any companies who could assess our site for a reasonable cost to point us in the right direction, we are doing our own blog, Facebook, Twitter, Onlywire?
On-Page Optimization | | Palmbourne0 -
Number of Words Product Pages
Hello, Can you give me some examples of how many words you use for product pages? I know it's going to vary and that quality is more important than number of words, but what's been optimal for you and why?
On-Page Optimization | | BobGW0 -
E-commerce product and review pages
Hi, Can somebody tell me what is the best solution for optimizing review pages of product for e-commerce site? For now situation is this: When somebody write review for product, url-s automatically generate for review page. Review page has same page title, meta description (which is the product description) as product page and link with anchor (excact product name) point back to orginal product. The problem is that I often see in SERP that actually review pages rank better than original product pages. Regards, Nenad
On-Page Optimization | | Uniline0 -
Domain Name and On-Page SEO
Where are the best places to put your Domain name in On-Page SEO? My domain name ends in .net so I would like to put it as many places as possible to brand the .net . On the analysis page I have found out that it is not a good idea to put it in the title page...but that is what the SEO guy I hired told me to do. Thanks, Utah Tiger
On-Page Optimization | | Boodreaux0 -
301 redirect link
Hi, I found some explanations on seomoz about permanently links, but I'm not sure, if I understood right, what to do. Our website has been created with a wrong structure and I have to change the URL of a couple of pages. E. G. http://www.ix-tours.com/Youth/ixdestBrusselYouth.aspx should be changed to http://www.ix-tours.com/DE/Jugend/BruesselJ.aspx to allow search identify it as a german page. What to do? Should I delete all content from the old page and insert the redirect to the knew one? The code as follows has to be inserted in the head section? Thank you for your help Brgds georg
On-Page Optimization | | itmlage0 -
Too many links
Hello, sorry question 2! I run the report it says we have 120 links roughly per page. I know this is bad however I have question about an oscommerce site. I identified some links that can be deleted for example Product picture is a link then the title and then its says details (so I can delete the details and that should save about 15 links) Now I really can only delete the breadcrumb for example car>>ford>>spareparts>>engine If I delete the breadcrumb I would lose four links would you say thats a good idea? or leave the breadcrumb due to the seo benefits. Many thanks for your help. Sonja
On-Page Optimization | | reallyitsme0 -
Duplicate product urls
Our site automatically creates shorter urls for the products. There is a rel canonical tag in place, but webmaster tools shows these urls have duplicate title tags. Here is an example: http://www.colemanfurniture.com/holden-desk.htm http://www.colemanfurniture.com/writing-desks-secretary-desks/holden-desk.htm Should the longer url be redirected to the shorter one?
On-Page Optimization | | thappe0