Do #anchors after urls affect ranking in seo?

Question

While programming a new tabs-system in javascript, where each tab is clickable and has its own ancher text on it, it would be easier to make these anchors numbers #1 #2 #2 etx.

On the other hand, its more difficult to make #text anchors, but if that has a meaning for the on page seo, then I will consider re-programming my tabs sytem.

Do anchors in urls affect ranking in seo, when on-page hyperlinks to cotton

http://website.com/cotton#1
http://website.com/cotton#2
http://website.com/cotton#3

http://website.com/cotton#trousers
http://website.com/cotton#hats
http://website.com/cotton#socks

What do you reccon in this case? Go with the more complex programming, or stick with the easier, program generated autonumeric tabs anchors?

Answer 1

As far as I know the so-called "fragments" of the URI (everything behind those #s) are important for SEO.

They usually point to a direct spot on a page where you can get your information from, which is especially useful at sites that contain much information on one page and you would need to scroll down to get your information.

Then again, if you can't follow those links and they do something if JavaScript is enabled only, search-engines won't care, because they can't exactly follow the links.

Always remember, search-engines don't parse JavaScript, for them those are plain URIs that lead to nowhere (or to the same page they're already on, which would be bad for the SEO)

You can parse those fragments with PHP, though, and show the right tab if it is clicked, so if JavaScript is turned off, the user as well as the search engine get the right content, anyways.

Answer 2

You should use an exclamation mark in your anchor links if you want them to be indexed by Google.

So instead of http://website.com/cotton#trousers you should use http://website.com/cotton#!trousers to have Google index them. It will be processed as if it was a separate page.