Web Designers and SEOs using backlinks from client sites
-
What are your thoughts on SEOs and web designers putting their own links in the footers of client sites.
For the sake of argument, lets assume that the client is happy for the link to be there. I'm referring to the SEO merits of the link being there from an 'irrelevant' website.
My belief is that this goes against what Google is looking for and that these are irrelevant links and likely to be picked up and penalised. That's what I believe!
However, I see lots of sites offering SEO services that have dofollow links from their client sites, using exact match anchor text and they are all ranking highly.
Is it just a matter of time before Google sniffs them out and penalises them for it? Or should I be going through my client sites and adding myself a dofollow link in the footer? (with their permission of course).
The highest ranking sites in any UK city do this. If you search SEO Manchester, SEO Leeds etc and find the top ranking sites and check them out on opensite explorer, they are all using a disproportionate amount of dofollow backlinks form client sites.
-
Excellent point on the anchor text. I reviewed a number of high ranking sites with DA of 95+ that use these links in the footer and they only use the site name in the anchor text.
Best,
Christopher -
I don't think there's no reason to nofollow this branded link - you built their site, they chose you and have kept that link on there - that's a pretty good signal that they are endorsing your work. If they want it removed, by all means they'll remove it, or ask you to remove it, or replace you with someone else and remove it. So I'd leave it as followed - but definitely go with branded.
You may also want to consider creating a page of clients you've worked with in the past/portfolio type page, and then link to that page instead of the homepage. If you get hit, you can always kill that page and start another internal portfolio page. With the homepage, that's much harder to do.
-
Thanks Mark - Would you be happy with a dofollow branded link, or err on the side of caution with a nofollow link?
-
I'd be very hesitant to add target anchor text in these links - I've seen sites that had built links like Web Design and SEO services by Company X - web design points to the webdev page, seo points to the seo page on the company website. These sites got rocked by Penguin - footer site wide links with keyword rick anchor text pointing to target pages leads to heavily overoptimized backlink profiles that are awesome penguin food. Don't do it! Just use a branded link or a naked anchor link (www.companyx.com) as the link back, otherwise you're just asking for trouble.
-
I agree I like to see them there, but I'm wondering how Google would view these links given the irrelevance of them on the actual site?
-
What are your thoughts on SEOs and web designers putting their own links in the footers of client sites.
When considering actual number of links, this practice is perhaps even more common in online software suites (e.g. phpBB) and online services (e.g. Volusion eCommerce), neither of which use nofollow. Regarding user experience, I'm fine with these links if they are in the footer because there are times when I really do want to know how a particular site was built. In other words, that's what good links are for--taking the user where they want to go.
Best,
Christopher
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
-
Does embedded content (from my site) help seo
hi i am creating a new accommodation site and will have some great videos on it (fly bys of local beaches and virtual tours of hotels etc). from an seo perspective i have two questions: 1. should i host on my own site or youtube/vimeo - its a new site but in the long run i want my site to get the credit 2. i will be giving the hotels the chance to embed and video content i have on their own sites. does this help my own seo juice and if so is there a particular way it should be done. there will be around 90 well established local hotels in total so figured it should add up.
Link Building | | neilhenderson0 -
Backlink Audit
Hello, I have a quick question for the MOZ readers about my companies current backlink audit. We've noticed many of the backlinks that the Google Webmaster Tool has found come from websites that are no longer in existence or have error messages. Are these websites counting negatively against us or should we ignore them? Thanks! Alex Rubin
Link Building | | PlanetDISH0 -
Backlinks From Scraper Sites - Should I Disavow Them?
I'm going through all the links (hopefully) to my website and I've found so many links from site scrapers. For instance: http://www.fzccg.com/cmsteam/dvbbs/boke.asp?zkhod76681.showtopic.148760.html ... which links to my site with anchor text "abercrombie uk How To Change Your Wiper Blades" It is surely not realistic to think that I can contact all the scraper site owners. So what should I do with this kind of links?
Link Building | | sbrault740 -
Directories for backlinks
Hello, I was wondering whether directories are a good source of creating quality back links? Thanks
Link Building | | PeterAllen910 -
Ebay listing SEO
Hi, I am wondering if there is any point building backlinks etc.. to ebay listings? How do I improve them in terms of SEO apart from the listing titles?
Link Building | | Mediaowl0 -
For a new site, does it matter which sites I get back links from first? I.e., are the first back links more important than later ones?
I've heard that when a site is new, the sources from which it gets its first back links are very important -- that the early links are more important for ranking than later links. Is this true. If so, what would be some good places to get these very first links? Thanks.
Link Building | | sigma3x0 -
New pages backlinking
Hello there, I have created a website that with some basic link building has been appearing nicely in location based keywords, eg, computer repairs flintshire, this was easy enough to achieve as the competition wasnt great, just wish i has these on page seo tools 6 months ago! my question is this - i am trying to get similair results in other location based keywords, eg, computer repairs chester and computer repairs wirral. What i have done is created a new page dedicated to each keyword, making sure that there is no duplicate content ect ect, the on page SEO is perfect and i am already on the first page for a couple i have done. so i have a url that now is http://www.ep-networks.co.uk/computer-repairs-chester.php
Link Building | | eirianprice
when linking the keyword 'computer repairs chester' do i point the url to this page or just to the http://www.ep-networks.co.uk ?? Thanks EP0 -
Backlinks from PR sites not showing in Open Site Explorer
Hi, Over the last year I have used a range of different PR sites to post news articles that link back to various pages on my site. However, barely any show up as link backs on Open Site Explorer, neither follow nor nofollow links. Can anyone explain why this is and whether or not the dofollow links count towards SEO if they are not picked up by OSE?
Link Building | | pugh0