This post was originally in YOUmoz, and was promoted to the main blog because it provides great value and interest to our community. The author’s views are entirely his or her own and may not reflect the views of SEOmoz, Inc.
In the past, I have tried several different ways to skip the first link that Google takes into account for a given URL (nofollowed links, links with 301 redirections, etc). However, all these attempts had little success (301 works but it’s very suspect). Recently, I ran a test to see how Google handled the anchor links (links to different sections within the same page, eg: <a rel=”nofollow” href=”http://example.com/index.php#anything)”>example.com/index</a> and was surprised by the results I found. In the setup I tested, Google completely ignored the first standard link and instead credited the second anchor link.
The Test
For my test, I included several links on a page (Page A),
- the first link is a simple link. (<a href=”http://example.com/category/product.php”>text</a>)
- the second and third link are anchor links. (<a href=”http://example.com/category/product.php#anchor-example”>other text</a>)
Or in graphic form: 
Continue reading →
