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If anyone hasn't seen yet the following blog:

http://www.seomoz.org/ugc/3-ways-to-avoid-the-first-link-counts-rule

It is describing that from at least two links (so two or more) that are located on the same page and both (or all if more than two) pointing to the same other page, only the first one will have some seo benefit (link juice). The rest won't count in seo benefit. Here doesn't count the links in images. I think most of us knew that already BUT:

  1. As ''first link'' is probably meant the first one in the HTML code of particular page but what when we are in the process of designing the page? In this case the code is changing on the fly (xsitepro - ''what you see is what you get'' simplified tool for website design). First link in the code can be replaced with new first one at any time. Is there any fast way to see which one is really the first one in the html code of the page?

  2. Sure the fact that first links only counts for seo benefit isn't relevant for images. But what about other links such as the ones in footer, buttons, potential testimonials, links in navigation menu and so on? Does absolutelly everything (except images) what is dofollow counts?

  3. Is that fact relevant along internal links, also for outbound and inbound ones? Probably yes.

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First link in the code can be replaced with new first one at any time [while developing].

  1. So? That "first" link can change at any time, not just when you're developing. The example pages he used are raw HTML documents(essentially one-column pages). That's obviously handy for proving a point, but it also proves only that point. Most sites of any significance likely have sidebars, feature boxes, sliders, etc. with frequently-changing content. Even if you did have a strictly one-column site it wouldn't matter. There's nothing stopping you from shuffling the content around at any moment.
  2. You probably shouldn't be designing/developing in public, anyway.

But what about other links such as the ones in footer, buttons, potential testimonials, links in navigation menu and so on? Does absolutelly everything (except images) what is dofollow counts?

Is there any reason for them not to count?
I suppose some kind of argument could be made that search engines might try to determine what's obviously just navigation, eg. by detecting nav elements(at least for HTML5) and maybe discounting those links, but in general a link is a link.

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  • Su' I wasn't trying to argue with you or anyone since you said this. I didn't even know you are going (thank you btw for reply!) to reply. I don't know from which part of the text you got thinking that I am even trying to argue, Im not and if you thought that, I apologize. Back to the topic: In your reply I don't find answer neither on my first nor second question. So I am repeating them. Also regarding third question: I have to guess your answer since you didn't really answer clearly: with your statement "link is a link" I understand that this fact is relevant for ALL 3 types of links. – Andrew01 Oct 10 '11 at 21:17
  • To the second question: yes. Unless you have some reason to think they wouldn't count; again, just links. There's no way, for example, to tell Google to ignore bits of a page(like you can for AdSense). They might choose to, but aren't going to tell you much about it, so it's just not worth worrying over. If they notice you hiding stuff, they won't like it. Also remember that they are now actually making use of your nav sometimes. – Su' Oct 10 '11 at 21:34
  • No argument; mostly tired of silly overwrought SEO tactics. To the first question, my point is that it's irrelevant. If you want to know which link is first, you can easily determine that from source. If you need a "tool," just disable CSS in your browser for a hint, but nobody except the search engines themselves are going to know for a fact which one their crawler detects as "first"(they can choose to ignore some stuff) and it's highly unlikely they'll share information at that detail. – Su' Oct 10 '11 at 21:37

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