undefined
Skip to content
Moz logo Menu open Menu close
  • Products
    • Moz Pro
    • Moz Pro Home
    • Moz Local
    • Moz Local Home
    • STAT
    • Moz API
    • Moz API Home
    • Compare SEO Products
    • Moz Data
  • Free SEO Tools
    • Domain Analysis
    • Keyword Explorer
    • Link Explorer
    • Competitive Research
    • MozBar
    • More Free SEO Tools
  • Learn SEO
    • Beginner's Guide to SEO
    • SEO Learning Center
    • Moz Academy
    • SEO Q&A
    • Webinars, Whitepapers, & Guides
  • Blog
  • Why Moz
    • Agency Solutions
    • Enterprise Solutions
    • Small Business Solutions
    • Case Studies
    • The Moz Story
    • New Releases
  • Log in
  • Log out
  • Products
    • Moz Pro

      Your all-in-one suite of SEO essentials.

    • Moz Local

      Raise your local SEO visibility with complete local SEO management.

    • STAT

      SERP tracking and analytics for enterprise SEO experts.

    • Moz API

      Power your SEO with our index of over 44 trillion links.

    • Compare SEO Products

      See which Moz SEO solution best meets your business needs.

    • Moz Data

      Power your SEO strategy & AI models with custom data solutions.

    NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic
    Moz Pro

    NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic

    Learn more
  • Free SEO Tools
    • Domain Analysis

      Get top competitive SEO metrics like DA, top pages and more.

    • Keyword Explorer

      Find traffic-driving keywords with our 1.25 billion+ keyword index.

    • Link Explorer

      Explore over 40 trillion links for powerful backlink data.

    • Competitive Research

      Uncover valuable insights on your organic search competitors.

    • MozBar

      See top SEO metrics for free as you browse the web.

    • More Free SEO Tools

      Explore all the free SEO tools Moz has to offer.

    What is your Brand Authority?
    Moz

    What is your Brand Authority?

    Check yours now
  • Learn SEO
    • Beginner's Guide to SEO

      The #1 most popular introduction to SEO, trusted by millions.

    • SEO Learning Center

      Broaden your knowledge with SEO resources for all skill levels.

    • On-Demand Webinars

      Learn modern SEO best practices from industry experts.

    • How-To Guides

      Step-by-step guides to search success from the authority on SEO.

    • Moz Academy

      Upskill and get certified with on-demand courses & certifications.

    • SEO Q&A

      Insights & discussions from an SEO community of 500,000+.

    Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints
    Moz API

    Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints

    Find your plan
  • Blog
  • Why Moz
    • Small Business Solutions

      Uncover insights to make smarter marketing decisions in less time.

    • Agency Solutions

      Earn & keep valuable clients with unparalleled data & insights.

    • Enterprise Solutions

      Gain a competitive edge in the ever-changing world of search.

    • The Moz Story

      Moz was the first & remains the most trusted SEO company.

    • Case Studies

      Explore how Moz drives ROI with a proven track record of success.

    • New Releases

      Get the scoop on the latest and greatest from Moz.

    Surface actionable competitive intel
    New Feature

    Surface actionable competitive intel

    Learn More
  • Log in
    • Moz Pro
    • Moz Local
    • Moz Local Dashboard
    • Moz API
    • Moz API Dashboard
    • Moz Academy
  • Avatar
    • Moz Home
    • Notifications
    • Account & Billing
    • Manage Users
    • Community Profile
    • My Q&A
    • My Videos
    • Log Out

The Moz Q&A Forum

  • Forum
  • Questions
  • Users
  • Ask the Community

Welcome to the Q&A Forum

Browse the forum for helpful insights and fresh discussions about all things SEO.

  1. Home
  2. SEO Tactics
  3. Link Building
  4. Empty href damages SEO? (href="#")

Moz Q&A is closed.

After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.

Empty href damages SEO? (href="#")

Link Building
5
9
7.7k
Loading More Posts
  • Oldest to Newest
  • Newest to Oldest
  • Most Votes
Reply
  • Reply as question
Log in to reply
This topic has been deleted. Only users with question management privileges can see it.
  • prozis
    prozis last edited by Jun 2, 2016, 11:17 AM

    Hello,

    I'm analyzing a website with thousands of pages.
    I realized that on many of them they have empty links such href="#".

    I wonder if that will cause any SEO damage, or if Google will just ignore it as there isn't any link?

    I was reading about it and people seems to not be sure, although they recommend on forums to user the CSS pointer clickable instead of empty link.

    Let me know your opinion on this please!

    Thank you in advance!

    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
    • CPR_PTANTONO
      CPR_PTANTONO @Andy.Drinkwater last edited by Jun 2, 2016, 4:58 PM Jun 2, 2016, 4:58 PM

      Thank you for the insight. I agree with your insight. You are correct in saying that it will affect signals because there is no link. And also not an SEO issue.

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
      • Highland
        Highland last edited by Jun 6, 2016, 1:43 PM Jun 2, 2016, 4:14 PM

        The only reason to use a fragment (the hashtag part of a URL is called a fragment) as your anchor, is that you're adding that link solely for the purpose of tying it to a DOM event (like an onclick event). There's better ways to do this in modern web programming, but it's still possible to see some old school sites doing

        link

        By definition, fragments exist solely for the client. Your web server will not log them. Google Analytics does not natively track them. So clicking on an empty fragment like that will just take you back to the top of your page (provided the JS doesn't stop the event). There's nothing to track. But there's something interesting to note here

        link

        Google can actually do some basic JS and it will recognize this bad attempt at link obfuscation as an actual link. So if you have links similar to this (which is not recommended) then those links will be counted as links. Be aware of this if you're worried about backlinks.

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
        • Andy.Drinkwater
          Andy.Drinkwater @CPR_PTANTONO last edited by Jun 2, 2016, 4:14 PM Jun 2, 2016, 4:14 PM

          I think you need to take a look at the page and how these have been used because it sounds like you haven't understood what the actual problem is fully.

          With regards to relevance, it will probably give search engines signals that this page is no longer relevant and therefore affecting the frequency of the crawl for that domain/subdomain/page

          It won't do that because they aren't complete links.

          This is basically a means to an end. It serves a purpose and while there are better options to achieve what they want, this is certainly not an SEO issue.

          -Andy

          CPR_PTANTONO 1 Reply Last reply Jun 2, 2016, 4:58 PM Reply Quote 2
          • CPR_PTANTONO
            CPR_PTANTONO last edited by Jun 2, 2016, 4:59 PM Jun 2, 2016, 3:55 PM

            In my opinion, pertaining to your case of "empty links", does it affect SEO? The answer probably lies in the amount of it. Maybe there is no direct impact if there is maybe 1 or 2 or even 10 links. In summary, yes it does affect SEO in the sense of it is not able to pass the juice. Think about a nice or highly searched keyword in an article - [Some nice keywords] and this anchor text does not go anywhere. The link equity probably gets passed no where and probably limited to that page only. With regards to relevance, it will probably give search engines signals that this page is no longer relevant and therefore affecting the frequency of the crawl for that domain/subdomain/page. Indirectly and overtime, this will affect SERP for that domain.

            As far as how many empty href wills start affecting SEO? It will be interesting to see this experiment. Any takers? I'll leave this to the SEO heavy weights or SEO nerds.

            Correction: I agree to Andy's comment below.

            Andy.Drinkwater 1 Reply Last reply Jun 2, 2016, 4:14 PM Reply Quote 1
            • ThomasHarvey
              ThomasHarvey last edited by Jun 2, 2016, 1:31 PM Jun 2, 2016, 1:31 PM

              Something i'd never thought about: http://www.searchenginepeople.com/blog/anchor-links.html

              So looks to not have an impact according to that article.

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
              • Andy.Drinkwater
                Andy.Drinkwater @prozis last edited by Jun 6, 2016, 1:41 PM Jun 2, 2016, 1:14 PM

                It looks like it's been done to activate certain functions, but it might have been a bit of a lazy way to do it.

                However, because of the fact that they are a null link but they might show a description or more information, I can't see that this would ever cause issues to SEO.

                Have you noticed that there has been any drop in positions that make you feel like they could be causing problems?

                -Andy

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                • prozis
                  prozis @Andy.Drinkwater last edited by Jun 2, 2016, 12:41 PM Jun 2, 2016, 12:41 PM

                  Hey,

                  Well they are the maybe because some bug importing, and there are thousands of them like that.
                  We do not need that for any reason. Problem is that I will just request a change in case of being bad for SEO, otherwise it can be expensive to have someone spending days on that just because...

                  https://www.prozis.com/pt/pt/xcore/xtreme-l-carnitine-3000mg-20-vials

                  If you go almost to the footer, you will see on bold this heading - under that you have some bulletins with the # link that I referred:

                  Principais Benefícios de Xtreme L-Carnitine 3000

                  Andy.Drinkwater 1 Reply Last reply Jun 2, 2016, 1:14 PM Reply Quote 0
                  • Andy.Drinkwater
                    Andy.Drinkwater last edited by Jun 2, 2016, 12:00 PM Jun 2, 2016, 12:00 PM

                    Hi,

                    Is there a reason they are there? Do they serve any purpose at all?

                    I would be surprised if Google did anything with them and would probably just see it as a bit of spurious code. Are you able to share an example?

                    -Andy

                    prozis 1 Reply Last reply Jun 2, 2016, 12:41 PM Reply Quote 1
                    • 1 / 1
                    1 out of 9
                    • First post
                      1/9
                      Last post

                    Got a burning SEO question?

                    Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.


                    Start my free trial


                    Browse Questions

                    Explore more categories

                    • Moz Tools

                      Chat with the community about the Moz tools.

                    • SEO Tactics

                      Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers

                    • Community

                      Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!

                    • Digital Marketing

                      Chat about tactics outside of SEO

                    • Research & Trends

                      Dive into research and trends in the search industry.

                    • Support

                      Connect on product support and feature requests.

                    • See all categories

                    Related Questions

                    • wonderd24

                      Backlink Transparency with SEO Agency

                      Hello everyone. I recently started working with an SEO agency and today they gave me an updated keyword report which showed some increase in rankings. I was not aware that any backlinks had been created yet so I asked for a report of the links. Their response is below and I am just wondering if this is normal practice being I have not worked with any type of SEO agency yet. "
                      Hey Daniel, We release a small report on them which the guest blog team will do soon. We don't reveal all backlink sources unfortunately because people have tried to bother the webmasters we have and basically steal our techniques. But rest assured you will be ranking at the top of the pack with our methods 😃  
                      "

                      Link Building | Aug 28, 2018, 6:14 PM | wonderd24
                      1
                    • zant

                      Are "Redirect 303 & Iframe" types of backlinks?

                      Are "Redirect 303 & Iframe" types of backlinks? google count them?

                      Link Building | Feb 22, 2015, 1:26 PM | zant
                      0
                    • arthureray

                      How relevant are citations to SEO?

                      'How much do citations help your seo in view of the direction that google seems to be headed where content is king? Should the citations not be relevant to your site?'.

                      Link Building | Feb 23, 2014, 4:16 PM | arthureray
                      0
                    • vanplus

                      Is commenting on other peoples blogs / articles good for seo?

                      Hello everyone, Just a quick question, say if I find some websites which are relevant to my service and they have articles I can comment on and include my URL , will these help for SEO? The websites also have a good PR rating higher than 3 does this count towards anything? Would these links be classed 'follow' or 'nofollow' links - could something please explain what this means aswell. Thanks very much!

                      Link Building | May 2, 2013, 10:06 AM | vanplus
                      0
                    • bloomnation

                      Mat Release SEO Impact

                      How do Mat Releases affect SEO? Does google recognize that your are syndicating duplicate content even if the content is being syndicated across top media outlets? Do these back links still carry any authority or can we even be penalized for the duplicate content? I came across mat releases here: http://matrelease.com/ An example of article syndication outlets: Guaranteed Placement on 800+ Media Sites. Generate guaranteed article placement on more than 800 respected online media outlets. Our digital distribution network includes: The LA Times; The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (JS Online); Las Vegas Review Journal; Hearst media sites for the San Francisco Chronicle, Houston Chronicle and Connecticut Post and others; local TV news affiliate sites from ABC, CBS, FOX and others; and hundreds more trusted sites.

                      Link Building | Apr 10, 2013, 6:58 PM | bloomnation
                      0
                    • motosantiago

                      Do inbound links to download .exe files improve SEO?

                      The site, (http://www.bartenderbarcodesoftware.com/) sells barcode software.  They also provide free printer drivers on their site.  During a recent domain change (before I started helping them), they began looking at their inbound links and found quite a few external sites linking to these download files.  However, when someone clicks on the link on one of these sites (i.e. http://vvs-motor.com.ua/barcode-printer-drivers) it immediately begins downloading the file (i.e. http://www.seagullscientific.com/downloads/drivers/archive/7.2/7.2.4/Unimark_7.2.4.exe) without taking the visitor to the site. The owner would greatly prefer this traffic to engage with the site and is considering 301 redirecting those download links to an actual webpage. Question:  Would this look suspicious to Google?  Would this have a positive or negative effect on SEO? The last factor to consider is that many of these sites will likely just recreate the list based on the new links at some future point. Thanks for any help!

                      Link Building | Jan 3, 2013, 12:14 PM | motosantiago
                      0
                    • STPseo

                      What are "naked backlinks"?

                      Hello SEOmozers! I have a question for you all. What are "naked backlinks"? Can you also give an example? Thank you! woo aka STPseo

                      Link Building | Oct 24, 2011, 7:11 PM | STPseo
                      0
                    • photoseo1

                      Need ideas to get do follow links from highly competative niche "wedding"

                      I need to get high quality do-follow links and my target market/keyword is ‘Maui wedding’ and a few others. Because it is such a competitive market I am having a hard time getting links from local companies providing Maui Weddings (I know why because they are my competitors) and national companies sites aren't much help because they are trying to provide leads to their advertisers. I would like do-follow links from non-paid sources any ideas or resources you could help with would be much appreciated.  Thanks.

                      Link Building | Oct 19, 2011, 2:03 PM | photoseo1
                      0

                    Get started with Moz Pro!

                    Unlock the power of advanced SEO tools and data-driven insights.

                    Start my free trial
                    Products
                    • Moz Pro
                    • Moz Local
                    • Moz API
                    • Moz Data
                    • STAT
                    • Product Updates
                    Moz Solutions
                    • SMB Solutions
                    • Agency Solutions
                    • Enterprise Solutions
                    Free SEO Tools
                    • Domain Authority Checker
                    • Link Explorer
                    • Keyword Explorer
                    • Competitive Research
                    • Brand Authority Checker
                    • MozBar Extension
                    • MozCast
                    Resources
                    • Blog
                    • SEO Learning Center
                    • Help Hub
                    • Beginner's Guide to SEO
                    • How-to Guides
                    • Moz Academy
                    • API Docs
                    About Moz
                    • About
                    • Team
                    • Careers
                    • Contact
                    Why Moz
                    • Case Studies
                    • Testimonials
                    Get Involved
                    • Become an Affiliate
                    • MozCon
                    • Webinars
                    • Practical Marketer Series
                    • MozPod
                    Connect with us

                    Contact the Help team

                    Join our newsletter
                    Moz logo
                    © 2021 - 2025 SEOMoz, Inc., a Ziff Davis company. All rights reserved. Moz is a registered trademark of SEOMoz, Inc.
                    • Accessibility
                    • Terms of Use
                    • Privacy

                    Looks like your connection to Moz was lost, please wait while we try to reconnect.