Losing anchor text benefits

[Kyle]

Lets say I'm trying to rank well on 'free games'. So on my site I add a link in the navigation that says 'free games' and links to /free-games.html.

But what I didn't tell you is that above this new text link in the navigation is an image that also links to /free-games.html.

Does anyone have any thoughts on how this effects your optimization? Basically having 2 or more links to the same place... which anchor text is chosen? Or if you have one text link, and one image link to the same place...

I personally never have more than 1 link when anchor text is important. I'm just curious if anyone knows anything on this topic?

Thanks!

[Chris]

My best guess is that the anchor text is combined.

So if you have one link that says "Hamburgers" and one link that says "Hot Dogs" Google will combine them into one link that says "Hamburgers Hot Dogs"

[lorien1973]

I link to several pages using multiple text phrases. I rank well for both of them. If you have a page "Free-games.html" and want to rank for free games as well as free online games; you can mix and match anchor text and feel good knowing eventually both will rise. Personally, I'd use free online games more than the other, since google will see all 3 words and letyou rank for varying combinations of words in the anchor text.