Link capsule vs textual link

1. 59

   Mark Knowlesposted 15 years ago

   I have a question for the more SEO/technical minded amongst us:
   
   Is there a difference between using a link capsule or linked anchor text in the body of the content?
   
   What I mean is - would one carry more weight with the search engines than the other?

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   1. 87

      Marisa Wrightposted 15 years agoin reply to this

      I'm no expert but I've always understood the important thing for search engines is to have anchor text, not just the website name.
      
      So if you're using the link capsule, so long as you gave the link a descriptive name (e.g. "luxury property") rather than just using the website name (e.g. www.luxuryproperty.com), it would come to the same thing as having anchor text in the content.
      
      However, from a reader point of view, I feel a link capsule highlights the link better and makes it more likely they'll click on it.

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   2. 76

      Lissieposted 15 years agoin reply to this

      I believe there is no difference - its all in the anchored links and the position on the page. Rumour has it that links at the bottom of the page are strongly devalued (goes back to the old webring days) - if look at the page source of a hub which has both contextural links and link capsules e..g http://hubpages.com/hub/making-money-Hubpages (you might have to go view wrap long lines to see this) - the search for "water damage los angeles" which is linked to from a links module) you will see it falls in middle of the flow of the surrounding text module. 
      
      So whatever works for you as a writer/reader is good for SEO in this particular case!

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2. 60

   freelanceworldposted 15 years ago

   Hello mark...
   i feel.. there isn't much difference as far as SEO is concerned.
   But i still think  the linked anchor text is better (some way)
   Its easy to write, concise for hub.
   Link capsules would be better option when focus is on various links mainly, as that short summary also adds weight to that link.
   
   Regards

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3. 63

   fayansposted 15 years ago

   Though I choose to believe that both links - contextual and capsule - are of equal weight in the eye of search engines, I use them for different purposes.
   
   For the most part, I use contextual link for link building whereas capsule links strategically placed right after the post are meant to drive traffic to another site/hub.
   
   So they pretty much serve different purposes for me.

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4. 31

   anujagarwalposted 15 years ago

   Linked anchor text would be better if you want to optimize your page for search engines. As you can write text/summary in your own words and can include some targeted keywords related to your current hub. Those keywords may not be present if you will use link capsule.
   
   But if you are not modifying the summary text, there would be no difference between the two.

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5. 67

   relacheposted 15 years ago

   Mark, I'm recalling that Paul Deeds once said something about why having links in the text capsules weren't as good as having them in link capsules, but I'm not finding it at the moment.  After all the discussion recently about eBay links, doing any search for "link comments" is mess.

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6. 47

   johnr54posted 15 years ago

   If you are asking which is better for the page being linked to, the conventional wisdom is that the anchor text in the body of the article carries more weight as far as optimizing the ranking of the page being linked to.  I say conventional wisdom because I've never tested it myself, but I get it from people who I know have tested it and found that's the case.
   
   Of course the same people will tell you there's no such thing as a bad link.  Just that some are better than others. (with the possible exception of paid links)

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