Sense of having an image link and text link together.

[ArtB]

If an image is used as a hyperlink, the Alt attribute is interpreted as a link text by some search engines.

<a href="page.html"><img border="0" src="image.gif" Alt="rich keyword alt" width="10" height="5"></a><a href="page.html">Link text</a>

I assumed that text link can't have as many rich keywords as ALT attribute of the image.

Do you think that adding small graphic i.e. small arrow image next to a link is worth doing for SEO or ineffective as you dilute links to the same page?

[thindenim]

You can always use rel="nofollow" on the image link, which will mean only the text passes pagerank

[ArtB]

You can always use rel="nofollow" on the image link, which will mean only the text passes pagerank

I think I will I get the same effect if I delete the image and have only the text link.
My question was: text link vs. text link + image link to the same destination.

[wige]

From what I have read, (mostly based on speculation and a very literal reading of the original pagerank patent) multiple links to the same place on one page are counted once. Basically, when the pagerank is calculated, the bot assembles a list of all the places linked to that are not marked as nofollow, then divides the outgoing pagerank between those locations. If you have two links to the same page, they are treated as one link.

Not quite related to your question, but the reasoning behind this is that if PageRank were to take into account the number of links to a destination on the page, it would make the system easier to manipulate. If you wanted one page to get more PR, you would simply double the number of links on each linking page.

However, as far as the calculation of relevance using the keywords in the link text and alt tag, I am not sure how that would be affected. My theory is that the content of both tags would be combined and then averaged somehow, so you wouldn't get much additional benefit. If you used this method to double the number of keywords, half in the text link and half in the alt tag, the bot would see twice as many words related to the target URL but each word would be valued at half the normal value. If you are repeating the keywords, they would probably be averaged so they would be worth the same as if there were only a single link.

[bobitza]

OP, that's an interesting idea!

Although I think wige is right. If the SEs do have any logic in their algorithms, they should count just one link, no matter the number of links pointing to the same page. wige was also saying about averaging the power of text and picture links ... however what about text links inside the content, surrounded by keywords? aren't they preferred by the SEs and SEOs

Any input is appreciated.

[incrediblehelp]

Originally Posted by bobitza

however what about text links inside the content, surrounded by keywords? aren't they preferred by the SEs and SEOs

Sure it probably helps on a relevancy scale.