Image Links Vs. Text Links, Questions About PR & Anchor Text Value
-
I am searching for testing results to find out the value of text links versus image links with alt text.
Do any of you have testing results that can answer or discuss these questions?
If 2 separate pages on the same domain were to have the same Page Authority, same amount of internal and external links and virtually carry the same strength and the location of the image or text link is in the same spot on both pages, in the middle of the body within paragraphs.
-
Would an image link with alt text pass the same amount of Page Authority and PR as a text link?
-
Would an image link with alt text pass the same amount of textual value as a text link? For example, if the alt text on the image on one page said "nike shoes" and the text link on the other page said "nike shoes" would both pass the same value to drive up the rankings of the page for "nike shoes"?
-
Would a link wrapped around an image and text phrase be better than creating 2 links, one around the image and one around the text pointing to the same page?
The following questions have to do with when you have an image and text link on a page right next to each other, like when you link a compelling graphic image to a category page and then list a text link underneath it to pass text link value to the linked-to page.
-
If the image link displays before the text link pointing to a page, would first link priority use the alt text and not even apply the anchor text phrase to the linked page?
-
Would it be best to link the image and text phrase together pointing to the product page to decrease the link count on the page, thus allowing for more page rank and page authority to pass to other pages that are being linked to on the page? And would this also pass anchor text value to the link-to page since the link would include an image and text?
I know that the questions sound a bit repetitive, so please let me know if you need any further clarification. I'd like to solve these to further look into ways to improve some user experience aspects while optimizing the link strength on each page at the same time.
Thanks!
Andrew -
-
Gotcha. This is a total guess, but I'd venture to say that PageRank is probably passed in the same quantities (mozRank definitely is).
Page Authority is harder to say because it doesn't actually "flow" - it's a metric we calculate AFTER the rest of the link graph and the metrics are done processing and represents a machine-learning based algo with inputs of every other kind of link metric. One of these could certainly be the ratio of images to text links or the existence or non-existence of both, but as with any machine learning system, it's hard to know what's actually (even for the folks who wrote it!)!
-
Hi Rand, thanks so much for the feedback. I agree and see it the same way.
For sites with great images and compelling media, it would make sense that a lot of their back links are image links pointing to their home or internal pages where the images are located. Anchor text links likely influence keyword rankings a bit more since they likely add more context to the link than an alt tag and the surrounding content around an image link. But a link from a great source is ideal indeed.
The question that I guess I haven't fully answered is whether or not Page Rank, Page Authority, Link Juice. etc gets passed as the same AMOUNT when flowing through an image link versus a text link. Using the page example I mentioned above, would an image link that flows from a Page Authority 50 page pass the same AMOUNT of Page Authority as a text link from a Page Authority 50 page? It's a geeky question, but so are so many elements of SEO
And the effectiveness of wrapping an image with text link are still kind of unknown by our crew or others I've talked to about it. At a glance, it's less code on the page, less links, and a good user experience, so on paper I think doing category grid links on ecommerce sites might serve the user and bots well if more sites would link the image AND text link together.
Thoughts?
- Andrew
-
Hi Andrew - it's been a while since I ran this particular test (almost 2 years!) but, back then, we saw that a straight HTML text link with anchor text appeared to pass slightly more ranking ability/value to a page than the same link with an image + alt text. Now, that said, I'm still a huge fan of image links - they're natural, they make sense in a backlink profile, etc. - and it certainly could have changed since then.
Honestly, from a practical standpoint, I usually wouldn't sweat image vs. text (get what you can if it's a great link source!), but from a technical level, my guess is that anchor text in HTML text is still slightly more influential than an image + alt attribute.
-
I am not aware of any search engine throttling the amount of PR or authority that is passed on by a link based on link type. If you or anyone else has any information on this topic, I would love to take a look at it.
-
Exactly, same idea that I'd like to test out too. Hopefully we'll hear feedback from others too on this.
In regards to PR and Page Authority going through and image link or text link, do you feel like the same strength would be passed through either form of link? (Not taking anchor text into consideration, just PR/Page Authority)
-
I thought about this same issue recently. On my next project where I encounter this topic, I plan to experiment with creating a div which contains the text and the image, then providing a single link for the div.
Basically, if you have a page with a linked image, and then a text link below the image, I would rather make that area a single clickable link rather then two separate links. I would need to do a bit of experimentation from a SEO perspective but it is something to think about.
-
Thanks for the solid reply Kent. I agree with your feedback and I'm looking a bit deeper to see if it would be smart to link an image and text phrase together.
Any thoughts on that? It could be easier for the user because they could click on both, and there would be less links on the page which could be good. But I wonder if search engines would attribute the anchor text to the link if it also includes an image?
-
Search engines are constantly changing their algorithms but to the best of my knowledge the below is accurate:
-
the first link to a given URL on a page is what's counted. The anchor text from the 2nd and further links would not offer value.
-
the order search engines go by is the order the links are seen as they read the page's code which may differ from how you see the links on the page
-
I believe link text offers more value then alt text. We know Google would prefer to weigh factors that a user can see such as text on a page, over a tag which can be stuffed with anything. With that said, since Google cannot see an image they are vulnerable and have to rely on us to tell them what is in the image. Lindsay offers a different opinion, see link below.
Additional reading:
http://www.seomoz.org/qa/view/26507/alt-text-vs-anchor-text
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/results-of-google-experimentation-only-the-first-anchor-text-counts
-
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
-
Dynamic referenced canonical pages based on IP region and link equity question
Hi all, My website uses relative URLs that has PHP to read a users IP address, and update the page's referenced canonical tag to an region specific absolute URL for ranking / search results. E.g. www.example.com/category/product - relative URL referenced for internal links / external linkbuilding If a US IP address hits this link, the URL is the same, but canonicalisation is updated in the source to reference www.example.com**/us/**category/product, so all ranking considerations are pointed to that page instead. None of these region specific pages are actually used internally within the site. This decision was done so external links / blog content would fit a user no matter where they were coming from. I'm assuming this is an issue in trying to pass link equity with Googlebot, because it is splitting the strength between different absolute canonical pages depending on what IP it's using to crawl said links (as the relative URL will dynamically alter the canonical reference which is what ranking in SERPs) Any assistance or information no matter how small would be invaluable. Thanks!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | MattBassos0 -
Using rel="nofollow" when link has an exact match anchor but the link does add value for the user
Hi all, I am wondering what peoples thoughts are on using rel="nofollow" for a link on a page like this http://askgramps.org/9203/a-bushel-of-wheat-great-value-than-bushel-of-goldThe anchor text is "Brigham Young" and the page it's pointing to's title is Brigham Young and it goes into more detail on who he is. So it is exact match. And as we know if this page has too much exact match anchor text it is likely to be considered "over-optimized". I guess one of my questions is how much is too much exact match or partial match anchor text? I have heard ratios tossed around like for every 10 links; 7 of them should not be targeted at all while 3 out of the 10 would be okay. I know it's all about being natural and creating value but using exact match or partial match anchors can definitely create value as they are almost always highly relevant. One reason that prompted my question is I have heard that this is something Penguin 3.0 is really going look at.On the example URL I gave I want to keep that particular link as is because I think it does add value to the user experience but then I used rel="nofollow" so it doesn't pass PageRank. Anyone see a problem with doing this and/or have a different idea? An important detail is that both sites are owned by the same organization. Thanks
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | ThridHour0 -
Should We Link To Our News?
We just started an "In the News" section on our webpage. We are not sure what would be the best for SEO purposes. Should we link to the news websites that have the stories about our company, even if they have no link bank? Or should we just take screenshots of the news article and only link to articles that link back to us (this is what we a currently doing)? Here is our news page, http://www.buyautoparts.com/News/
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | joebuilder0 -
Link + noindex vs canonical--which is better?
In this article http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=66359 google mentions if you syndicate content, you should include a link and, ideally noindex, the content, if possible. I'm wondering why google doesn't mention including a canonical instead the link + noindex? Is one better than the other? Any ideas?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | nicole.healthline0 -
Too many links?
I've recently taken over a site from another agency, which has hundreds of linking root domains. These domains are of very low quality and, in my opinion, are being ignored by Google. Is it best to 'clean up' some of these links, or leave them and start building quality links? I just don't want to waste time cleaning link profiles if there's no need.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | A_Q0 -
SEO value of Articles, Magento vs. Wordpress?
Our e-commerce site is running on the Magento platform while the blog for the site is integrated and is on the Wordpress platform. The blog is not on a separate subdomain, so it is on www.website.con/blog. What I wonder is how Google treats information on a Wordpress blog compared to pages created in the Magento CMS pages. Would a high quality content article posted as a blog post on the Wordpress have a lower SEO value than a page on the Magento? Thanks.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | ikomorin0 -
Links from tumblr
I have two links from hosted tumblr blogs which are not on tumblr.com. So, website1 has a tumblr blog: tumblr.website1.com And another site website2.com also uses the a record/custom domains option from tumblr but not on a subdomain, which is decribed below: http://www.tumblr.com/docs/en/custom_domains Does this mean that all links from such sites count as coming from the same IP in google's eyes? Or is there value in getting links from multiple sites because the a-record doesn't affect SEO in a negative way? Many thanks, Mike.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | team740 -
Image Galleries & Leaking Pagerank
I have a website in a niche that's highly graphical in nature. Most of the pages that I rank well for are mainly textual at the moment, but I'm gradually adding image galleries to these pages. The galleries consist of a number of thumbnails that are html linked to the large version of the image (via the Lightbox script). My question: will the page lose pagerank because of the many links from the thumbnails to the images (upto 30/page besides the normal links)?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | dirkla0