Google’s head of search spam, Matt Cutts, posted a video on Google Webmaster Help answering:

“What happens when one page has two links to the same URL?”

Does it pass PageRank the same way? What about if the links have different anchor text? Luckily, Cutts answers these questions to the best of his ability without giving away his secrets (wishful thinking there).

PageRank

Cutts explains that even if there is more than one link to a specific page, PageRank flows to each site individually as it would any other link on the page. Therefore, having more than one link to a specific page won’t hurt your rankings! Great news!

Anchor Text

The effects of the anchor text on two or more links to the same page may vary depending on the time. Cutts mentioned the last time he looked was in 2009, and at that point in time they only counted the anchor text from the first link listed. Now, we know he couldn’t give us the details on if this has changed since then and if all different anchor texts count or just one.

Matt Cutts’ Lesson

Matt Cutts made it very clear that if you are really concerned about if two links to the same page can affect page rank, then “you might want to step back and look at the higher mountain top of SEO.” It is important to focus on other features of SEO rather than the minor aspects.  It is more worth your time and attention to focus on making sure that your users are making it through the funnel or that your homepage design is completely optimized.