SEO Tycoon

**TWD** · 09:26 AM

I have a site that for uses <img> anchored links for internal navigation.
For various reasons.

My real question is , a lot of SEO "experts" argue that internal navigation TEXT links are essential for boosting your PR.
Again, its the navigation bar I`m talking about.
But as I understand it, 90% of any link PR benefit is a derived from the actual keywords contained in the anchor text itself.

So this begs the question, how much real benefit is there in having internal links with generic keywords like HOME, CONTACT US and so on. And this is exactly what navigation links are on almost all websites.

So is there any SIGNIFICANT loss in NOT having internal text links in the navigation bar? Is it a mistake to use anchored image files? Why?

**juliensimon** · 09-25-2008, 12:10 PM

The first rule in building a website is: build it for your users !!

If you want to call the home page: flower shop san diego, great, you'll have keywords in your links. But how many people will browse your website? Not too many.

Make your website USER friendly first. They are the one buying your products in the end, not the search engines.

**Learning Newbie** · 09-25-2008, 03:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TWD

My real question is , a lot of SEO "experts" argue that internal navigation TEXT links are essential for boosting your PR.

No. It's essential for ranking in general, and has nothing to do with PR.

Google doesn't have OCR technology - they can't read text encoded in a GIF file.

The value of a link, in Google's algorithm, is the anchor text. If you have 1,000 pages with navigation, that's 1,000 (internal) links to each target with no anchor text. Google doesn't know what to make of them. You're not passing ranking power for given keywords.

Essential, good, bad - value calls you'll have to make yourself. But that's what's happening in the code.

**chrishirst** · 09-25-2008, 05:00 PM

For image links SEs use the alt attribute text in place of anchor text.