Link experiment - when do duplicate links count?

Here’s the conundrum - if you find yourself linking to the same site twice on a page, or else linking the same keywords more than once, it can be difficult to tell whether the second or first link carries any value.

For example, if you do either of the following, then what are the actual link benefits?

1. Same keyword linked twice on a page, to different URLs
2. Same URL linked twice on a page, for different keywords

Not sure?

Here’s a live experiment you can refer to, using two nonense words, and links to different sites.

Experiment 1:

1. Repeated keyword

If I link for a nonsense word to two different domains, do search engines really credit the keyword to both domains, or is only the first counted?

So I’ll link XGGFLLGLYZ here to Google -

And I’ll link XGGFLLGLYZ here to MSN.

2. Repeated link

If I use the same URL on a page, linked to for two different keywords, then will search engines give equal credit to the URL for both keywords - or simply credit one?

So I’ll link TTXMBBLEWBBLE to Yahoo!

and also link TTXMBBLEYAAKD to Yahoo! as well!

Whatever the results are that come in, it’s always worth remembering that search engines are constantly tweaking their algorithms.

So this is an experiment you may want to keep an eye on in the continuing changes - just to see whether those repeated URLs/keywords are really delivering benefits.