This factor counts how many of your keyword variations appear inside the unique link destination URLs on a page. RankGear deduplicates anchor href values first, then tallies whole-word variation matches across those distinct URLs — so it reflects the vocabulary of where your links point, not how often a link is repeated.
| Factor ID | RG-KWD-049 |
|---|---|
| Family | Keyword Usage & Density |
| Measurement | Variation occurrence count |
| Measured zone | Distinct anchor destination URLs |
What it measures
This factor counts keyword variations that appear in unique link destination URLs. It looks only at where anchors point — the href value — and reports how many of your tracked keyword variations show up across the set of distinct destinations found on the page.
How RankGear measures it
RankGear parses anchors from the script-free body, keeps only the first occurrence of each exact URL value, and sums case-insensitive whole-word variation matches in those deduplicated URLs. Deduplication is by exact URL string, so two links with identical href values count once, while any difference — a query string, a trailing slash, a fragment — produces a separate distinct destination that is scored on its own.
What RankGear looks for
<a href="/keyword-variation-guide">…</a>
<a href="https://example.com/keyword-variation-guide">…</a>
<a href="/keyword-variation-guide?ref=nav">…</a>
→ 3 distinct href values; whole-word variation matches summed across all threeHow to optimize it
Use stable, descriptive internal URLs and link to relevant resources. Let the vocabulary in your link destinations follow naturally from the pages you actually point to — do not change destinations, or spin up near-duplicate URLs, merely to insert keywords. Treat this as an observation about your linking patterns, not a target to inflate.
Important considerations
- Deduplication is by exact URL string — identical
hrefvalues are counted only once. - Query strings and fragments can make otherwise similar URLs distinct, splitting one destination into several scored entries.
- External destinations also contribute, not just internal links.
- URL punctuation affects word-boundary matching, so slugs, separators, and encoding influence which variations register.
- This is a correlation-based prioritization signal measured within a result set. A higher count relates to, but does not cause or guarantee, any ranking position.
Related factors
Part of the Factors reference · how RankGear measures · glossary.