Tracking duplicate links on a page

Frequently there will be more than one link on a page to another page on the same site.

For example, on the home page, there might be three links to product1, one on the nav bar, one from an image which says ‘Product of the week’ and one in the body copy extolling product1’s virtues.

So how do you track which link gets the most traffic?

One way is simply to add a parameter to the link.

The links from the home page to Product1 page will look something like

<a href="/product1.html">Product 1</a>
 

you then add a tracking parameter to each so they look like

<a href="/product1.html?link=icon">Product 1</a>

< a href="/product1.html?link=navbar">Product 1</a>
< a href="/product1.html?link=body">Product 1</a>
 
 
The only problem with doing this is that Google then sees three different pages but the content is the same, ie duplicate content.
 
You get around this problem by adding the no follow tag to all but one of the links so they become

<a href="/product1.html?link=icon" rel=”no follow”>Product 1</a>

< a href="/product1.html?link=navbar" rel=”no follow”>>Product 1</a>
< a href="/product1.html?link=body">>Product 1</a>
 

Leave one of the links without the no follow tag as you want Google and the other search engine to follow the link.

When deciding which link to leave for Google to follow, remember that text links are more valuable than image links, and links in the body text more valuable than links in the navigation. But of course there are always practical considerations, the nav bar is probably controlled by the template which means you have to leave the nav bar links alone.

Looking at which links capture the most traffic can make a real difference when it comes to optimising your page layout and design.