WBF told me to get rid of my low contrast footer links...
-
I just finished watching WBF where Rand took a moment to identify some of the potentially harmful SEO practices that could be penalized in the upcoming algo update targeting over-optimization. (Great post BTW!) One of which was using low contrast, exact match footer links to inner pages.
But I couldn't help but notice something similar being done on the SEOmoz site. In the attached image, I compare this to a site I've done using a similar practice.
What are your thoughts on footer links found in this example and how should we, as SEOs, handle footer links in the future?
-
I agree with you, but you see it quite a lot - especially people trying to optimise for multiple location based variations.
-
Correct me if I'm wrong but surely adding more internal links to pages on your site with different keywords would dilute your overall link value, and therefore you're actually doing yourself no favours anyway?
-
I took it to be the kind of footers that are there to create spammy internal links for multiple permutations of particular keywords. The fact that they're not just low contract, but so unnoticeable that that the link really can't be there for any user benefit.
It seems that more than ever, it's a good idea to ask yourself what the reason is to add something to the web page...
-
Hi Alex,
I agree with what you're saying about distracting you from the content of the site, but if you've reached the footer chances are you've already read the important information on the page.
Links in the footer tend to be the boring Terms and Conditions, Privacy Policy, Contact Us and maybe a few social media links, and lets be honest we don't immediately visit a site and expect to see that information in our faces or in the main navigation or above the fold.
It's a shame that there aren't more tools or extensions available that will allow us as website developers to optimise our site and code to help users with more diverse accessibility issues.
-
<title>SEOMoz Rand Fishkins Response | Footer Link Best Practices</title>
Footer Link Best Practices by Rand Fishkin, CEO of SEOMOZ
Ooops - did I over optimize this reply?
Hear us, Rand, hear us.
-
Thanks for the responses. I agree with Ben, in that all text should be readable and not hidden in anyway. But I also think there is a need to have lower contrast text to avoid distracting users from other elements on the page.
If I'm reading content on a page, I don't want to be distracted by the footer links. On the flip side, if I can't find something, I look to the footer for some navigational help.
And Mark, I'll be curious to see what Rand has to say as well (although I'm not counting on it). I know he's a busy guy. I would certainly welcome a response from any of his knowledgeable staff.
Thanks again!
-
I think this goes back to the days where people sued to have a whole bunch of spammy links in the footers of their sites and changed the colour of the text to match the background of the footer in an attempt to fool search engines and get higher up in the rankings.
I can certainly see why its an accessibility issue for users using screen-readers to navigate through the web. Sometimes I view my own website using Lynx on my Linux command-line to see where I can improve my website accessibility.
-
I asked a similar question in the comments on today's WBF.
It wasn't clear to me whether the focus was on low-contrast, for-seo-purposes-only only keyword phrases or the concept of footer links in general.
Looking forward to some clarification from Rand, the Master of the Board.
-
I think that you need to have good contrast between text colours and background to ensure good usability of the site.
I always make sure that my designs don't have any combination of green text on red background (and vice versa) because visitors who are colour blind won't be able to clearly read the text on a page.
I can see why Google is pushing for this to be a ranking factor as it should lead to more accessible websites being produced, but I don't see how the algorithm can determine low contrast on a website.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Inbound Linking from your own sites
Good evening, On each of the sites I have made, I have a link with the anchor text 'Build and Design by Christoper Davies' to my own website. This link is in the footer of every page each of all the sites. Should I have a 'no follow' rel added to these links, or does linking from all the sites (on all pages) help my ranking? I am concerned that having so many inbound links from the same sites, with the same anchor text may be doing me more damage than good.
On-Page Optimization | | chrisdavieswebdesign0 -
Footer Section
As we have service oriented website, so what all links we need to add in our footer section?
On-Page Optimization | | Obbserv0 -
Outgoing Links Best Practice
Hi, It is my understanding that it is good practice to add relevant out going links to my content pages. I do not intend to over do it and the out going links I intend to add would be useful for the reader. My question is do I need to add noindex/nofollow tags to these links? Does it make any difference either way or can I just leave them as index/follow links? Thanks
On-Page Optimization | | UnderMe0 -
No followed links, what happens to the PR?
Hi, I have read a few times, on here and other places that when a website applies a no follow tag to a link the PR is not retained but instead disappears (evaporates) thus neither website benefiting. Is that true? If so what is the actual benefit of no following a link?
On-Page Optimization | | Bondara0 -
Which Blog Platform to link to an eCommerce site is best?
I just hired a content writer to blog on my site, but I want to make sure I have the right blog set up properly before doing so. I currently have my blog on my own domain. http://alturl.com/ixd7p It's a pretty crappy blog, to be quite frank. (The link to the blog is in the footer). It doesn't allow me to change category titles so it's throwing duplicate content - not good. I am seriously considering getting a self hosted Wordpress blog and linking that to my site instead at 3dcart- so it will be blog.domainname.comMy CONCERN.... I always heard that it's best to have the blog right right on the eCommerce site (just as I have it now) because it keeps feeding the domain fresh content. If I have a self hosted Wordpress blog and have it linked to my site, will it still feed my site fresh content?
On-Page Optimization | | tutugirl0 -
Lists of Product Links: What is good, what is bad?
I am a web designer but a bit of an SEO noob (trying to get better at both). I am working with one particular client on a site I inherited with existing structure. This client has about 10 products on 2 pages. On every page there is a product list that is basically the same list sorted in 2 ways: 1st by product, 2nd by usage. These all link to internal anchors so this might be an example on www.site.com Cleaner X1 - links to www.site.com/cleaners.php#x1
On-Page Optimization | | mparry9
Cleaner X2 - links to www.site.com/cleaners.php#x2
Cleaner X3 - links to www.site.com/cleaners.php#x3
...
Cleaner For Brick - links to www.site.com/cleaners.php#x1
Cleaner For Marble - links to www.site.com/cleaners.php#x2
Cleaner For Stone - links to www.site.com/cleaners.php#x3 Obviously this adds about 20 links on every page on the site (including the actual pages these products are on). What are your thoughts on this? Good idea or bad to have on the site? Should I remove the redundant links on the actual page that product falls on...or is this bad and should be removed altogether?0 -
Canonical links
My website is relatively new, January. We climbed steadily to 6th for our search term then overnight rocketed to 1st. This only lasted a week and have been stuck at 9th ever since. When I use the SEO Moz tools our site should theoretically be top...I only joined today btw. Anyway in Google webmaster tools I noticed it said I had duplicate title tags, when I checked to see what the pages were- it was my home page! Google also seems to have cached two versions of our homepage, the root domain and the Default.aspx page. Now I have fixed this canonical linking issue today (using canonical link tag and 301s) so time will tell but has anyone got any first hand experience of this issue? Was it a big factor? Thanks!
On-Page Optimization | | SplashBacksNI0 -
What about that stuffed footer?
Whether you look at zappos.com, bol.com, or other e-commerce websites you will almost always see a footer that is full of links to categories & subcategories. These elements aren't really attractive, and to be honest, I don't think I ever clicked on one of those links because most of the time I don't reach the bottom of such pages. Why do these companies use these kinds of footers? Is it for SEO purpose,? Are those links passing juice? Aren't those links at the bottom of the page and therefore not that relevant as other links used in paragraphs? Aren't they contributing to too many on-page links? Maybe only use it on homepage? I'm really looking forward to the opinions of the experts here at the forum...
On-Page Optimization | | jbrabants0