How to optimize achor text links on ecommerce category page
-
A category page on an e-commerce sites, containing a list of the products within the category, usually shows the product image above the product text link. If both image and anchor text link to the product page, this would mean that the image is counted as the link in terms of ranking value.
What would be the best way to make the anchor text count in stead of the image? I guess some ways would be:
1. Not making the product image a link
2. Using some kind of link masking / redirecting technique for the image
3. Employing a technical trick to make the anchor text link come first in the code readable by search engines.What would be the easiest way to solve this issue? Or do you believe it's not worth bothering?
-
This pretty much mirrors what I was going to say....
"I can't find an example of how it would be coded (check link above!), but you could look at having a single ahref stemming from the product text, and expand the clickable area to include the image. This would get around your issue, and I've always thought that having multiple links to a single product like that is sub-optimal.
I'm not sure how much added SEO benefit this would have, but all the small things..."
-
Here is a link to an insteresting thread on this topic in the GWT forums: http://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/webmasters/1yhb_xcdtZ0
Judging from what top level contributors have said there, linking images and text links pass the same amount of PR, with a very tiny amount of advantage to anchor text for a text link versus anchor text from the image alt text. Ultimately, do what's best for the user. In this case, for e-commerce, I think the image link taking precedence is just fine.
Dana
-
On our category pages we display products like displayed below. It is semantically correct, as all the elements inside the link are inline elements - it would not validate if we had a
in there as that is a block-element. However, in order to be able to style them correctly, we have added "display: block;" in the stylesheet making it easier to work with.
[
Name
Price](link_to_product)
Does anyone know what this setup has of impact on Google picking up anchor text etc.? Technically, we have an image, a name, and a price, where normally only a name is displayed. Is there some way, in which we can specify what should be counted for/valued as the anchor text (in this case )?
Thanks
-
Is this worth the effort or change in design?
Isn't it that google looks at the 1st link on a page?
So if you have 6 products and images this issue would only effect the 1st product seen?
Thanks
Handcrafter
-
You could design your product pages around having the anchored text link appear first, perhaps in an above description or blurb, and once again under the photo.
-
Hi all, i notited this discussion in another question (http://www.seomoz.org/q/how-to-properly-link-to-products-from-category-page)
I answered there with a technical solution, which i also would like to share here.
I made a fiddle about it, what do you think? Is it over optimization, or is it just a nice trick to get only one link, which is really well optimized?
-
Using a no-follow will loose link juice,
-
Firstly, I wondered if there are any news about this discussion...
Secondly, I wondered why it matters.
Is it because Google will consider only the first link from page A to B?
If that is the case (assuming you can't change the look and feel of the site) won't adding nofollow to the image link will solve the problem?Thanks
-
Perhaps add a no follow to the imageand move the link above the image . Currently you might have
you need to make it something like
<a <strong="">rel="nofollow" href="product.php"></a>
-
Just curious, would no-following the image link work?
-
Hi! We're wondering how your project is going, and if you made a decision and can share any results, or if you're sill looking for advice. Thanks!
-
This is unlkely to have too much of an impact on your rankings. I would recommend looking at the top 3 or 5 for your chosen keyword and look at what they're doing. I certainly wouldn't lose any sleep over this, just make sure your images are optimised too and maybe go with #3 if you're really keen to make the change.
-
Thanks Ryan, that's really helpful. Regarding #3: could you still make the anchor text link appear below the image for users, but have it come first in the source code for search engines? Any suggestion for how that would look like in terms of code?
Could you also do this with a block of text that appears at the bottom of the page, but is placed on top in the code? As having static text on the category page is important for SEO, but you might want to have users seeing the products before the text.
-
A very common issue to encounter!
#1: Absolutely not! People click on images.
#2: Too much effort and possibly risky in Google's eyes.
#3: This isn't really a trick. Just update the template that generates the page and move the linked text ahead of the image. Any developer could handle this for you.
Hidden option #4: Have the link enclose both the image and the product name. It may invalidate your markup, but if #3 isn't an option, consider this.
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
-
Best way to link to multiple location pages
I am a Magician and have multiple location pages for each county I cover. I currently have them linked off the menu under locations/ <county>and also in the footer</county> However I have heard that a link from the page is much stronger, so I am experimenting with removing the Menu & Footer link and just linking to these pages from within the content. It's not really a navigation item and most people come in through search to the right page. Am I diluting the link by having it in the Menu/Page and Footer? I read a long time ago that Google only considers the first link to a page and ignores the rest - is that the case? Thanks Roger https://www.rogerlapin.co.uk/
Technical SEO | | Rogerperk0 -
Link to AMP VS AMP Google Cache VS Standard page?
Hi guys, During the link building strategy, which version should i prefer as a destination between: to the normal version (php page) to the Amp page of the Website to the Amp page of Google Cache The main doubt is between AMP of the website or standard Version. Does the canonical meta equals the situation or there is a better solution? Thank you so mutch!
Technical SEO | | Dante_Alighieri0 -
Duplicate content due to numerous sub category level pages
We have a healthcare website which lists doctors based on their medical speciality. We have a paginated series to list hundreds of doctors. Algorithm: A search for Dentist in Newark locality of New York gives a result filled with dentists from Newark followed by list of dentists in locations near by Newark. So all localities under a city have the same set of doctors distributed jumbled an distributed across multiple pages based on nearness to locality. When we don't have any dentists in Newark we populate results for near by localities and create a page. The issue - So when the number of dentists in New York is <11 all Localities X Dentists will have jumbled up results all pointing to the same 10 doctors. The issue is even severe when we see that we have only 1-3 dentists in the city. Every locality page will be exactly the same as a city level page. We have about 2.5 Million pages with the above scenario. **City level page - **https://www.example.com/new-york/dentist - 5 dentists **Locality Level Page - **https://www.example.com/new-york/dentist/clifton, https://www.example.com/new-york/dentist/newark - Page contains the same 5 dentists as in New York city level page in jumbled up or same order. What do you think we must do in such a case? We had discussions on putting a noindex on locality level pages or to apply canonical pointing from locality level to city level. But we are still not 100% sure.
Technical SEO | | ozil0 -
Can I redirect a link even if the link is still on the site
Hi Folks, I've got a client who has a duplicate content because they actually create duplicate content and store the same piece of content in 2 different places. When they generate this duplicate content, it creates a 2nd link on the site going to the duplicate content. Now they want the 2nd link to always redirect to the first link, but for architecture reasons, they can't remove the 2nd link from the site navigation. We can't use rel-canonical because they don't want visitors going to that 2nd page. Here is my question: Are there any adverse SEO implications to maintaining a link on a site that always redirects to a different page? I've already gone down the road of "don't deliberately create duplicate content" with the client. They've heard me, but won't change. So, what are your thoughts? Thanks!
Technical SEO | | Rock330 -
How to Delete the slug /category/ from wordpress category pages
Hi all, I would like to ask you what's the better way to eliminate the slug /category/ form the wordpress category pages. I need to delete the slug /category/ to make the url seo frendly. The problem is that my site is an old site with the page indexed by Google for a long time. Thanks for your advice.
Technical SEO | | salvyy0 -
Explain me the SEO impact when a website has more internal link compared to less internal links
A website that I am working on has more than 200 internal links (Its because of the design and various kind of service that we offer). I want to know its SEO impact. I also want to know the SEO impact when a website has less internal links compared to more internal links
Technical SEO | | BoniSatani0 -
Certain product ranking higher than category (ecommerce)
Hi all, I'm a bit stumped on a SERP. The product is ranking higher than the actual category. Is there anyway to fix this? When I type in "category111", I get the product link instead of a link to the general category. It would be "productname category111" and link would point to product not category. Hope that makes since! TIA
Technical SEO | | William.Lau0 -
Do we know if inbalanced anchor text distribution also applies to internal links?
I have the pages of my site linked together very well with editorial links in my copy and blog posts. But now I'm starting to wonder post-penguin if it's a problem if all my internal links to a certain page have the same anchor text? Or is my internal link juice not powerful enough to set off a red flag? I don't think I've seen this addressed anywhere or if we even know the answer to this or can only speculate.
Technical SEO | | UnderRugSwept0