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
-
Backlinks are not adding
I have added different types of backlinks but no one is showing on my site https://kitchendimes.com/ so what can be the problem?
Link Building | | ali464740 -
What qualities to look for when trying to find sites to get backlinks from?
When trying to build backlinks, of course some sites are much harder to get links on than others. I am trying to figure out which sites my time and effort is best spent trying to get a link on. I may view a site as important and high quality but Google may not. Which tools and metrics within MOZ should I look at to determine if a site is worth the effort to get a backlink from? I'm sure "Domain Authority" is a factor. Which number makes it definitely worth pursuing?
Link Building | | Bperry129
Does inbound links and spam score count for anything? Which metric is best to look at to figure out the most powerful backlink I can get?0 -
Linking to the same sites from more than one of my sites, is this bad?
If I work for a company that has more than one website within the same industry and we have separate websites within that industry. An example would be: CarLoans.com HomeLoans.com & PersonalLoans.com The only difference from this example is that we are a B2B Company. My question is: is it bad to acquire links from the same external websites for multiple websites that we own and want to rank for? If I establish a relationship with Forbes or some other website and I can get links to several of our sites, will it ever be bad to link to all of our websites from this one website. I am asking not just for high domain authority website like Forbes, but also for websites that may have a DA in the 30's 40's and 50's as well. Thank you
Link Building | | fersu0 -
External Backlinks - Should I remove/disavow external blog posts done by SEO company?
Last year my company hired an SEO company to build backlinks for targeted achor text keywords. It turns out that they wrote average to below average blog posts that had content related to my business, but that were placed on odd websites, not related to my business. They did this for about one year before I fired them. Should I try to get each of those blog posts removed and then disavow them? If the external links back to my site are nofollow then it is my understanding that I don't really need to worry about them...is that accurate? Is it too risky to keep any external backlinked content alive when it is on a site that is unrelated to my business?
Link Building | | ajgrossman0 -
Backlinks and Domain Authority
Hi there, I have a question on backlinks. I have seen conflicting stories about it, and hoping someone with a vast amount of experience will be able to help me (If you could please be so kind). Now I understand the difference between 'no-follow' links and 'follow' links. I have accumulated quite a few 'no-follow' links through things like Facebook, Youtube, Twitter etc. I understand that they won't feed my site authority or trust; or anything of that sort (I do work on content too, and have gotten a few follow links, don't worry). Now I have seen conflicting answers to the actual importance of them. Some things I have read are saying that SEs completely ignore them (NFL), and they don't even consider them a 'link', but rather a user tool to further the experience of the reader on your site. Which is fair enough, but then people are turning around and also saying that Google relies heavily on them, and they only make up 5% of the internet or something. I have even read something saying they are the only ones worth getting (I know that is bs, but they must have a reason behind this thought?). If someone could enlighten me as to a 'ideal' ratio, and also any little known authoritative sites I could look at submitting content to. I am in the plumbing business, and doing my own sites, so I'm no expert. Also, what are the importance of comment links? I don't go for them, but don't know if I should? Sorry for the mouthful, but I would really appreciate help on this matter. Kindest regards, Kyle The Plumber Bro's The Electrician Bro's
Link Building | | Kyle_James0 -
Backlink question
Hi all. Here's the scenario. There is a company who provide financial services to their online clients. On ALL their clients sites they have a "payments-by-us" style logo with backlink to their homepage domain name. This means they have over 3,000 links from a multitude of non-related websites - with just 3 or 4 anchor text keywords in these backlinks. No surprise they have been hit by Penguin My questions What it the best practice for these type of linking LOGO's. Should they link to a dedicated page,and NOT the homepage? Should they have branded + anchor text, no text, or just branded? or a combination of each Should they even be a link at all as they are coming from such a diverse group of sites? I understand how Penguin penalises for overuse of money word keywords as anchor text. This is something that has definitely happened here (by the bucket load) ... Assume the anchor text is "Green Chips Finance" and that phrase is also overused and a bit "stuffy" in their homepage. Here's my question - could simply lowering the prominence / significance of "Green Chips Finance" on the actual home page, help in reducing the impact of the damage caused by the thousands of backlinks with "Green Chips Finance" as the anchor text? I say this as they have a similar number of back links saying "Red Chips Finance", but there is no mention of "Red Chips Finance" on their homepage other than in the keywords and a couple of standard text mentions (no H1, H2, alt text etc) ... interestingly, "Red Chips Finance" (not the real words) is Google No1 whereas "Green Chips Finance" has been demoted from longtime No1 to about 4. Cheers
Link Building | | BinaryTris0 -
Network of sites
Hi guys, Wanted to get your opinion. Ran a backlink profile of a client and discovered there is a number of sites that linked to the main site. The number of sites are owned by the client and seems to be built on the purpose of just backlinking, there is footer links (exact match keyword links) The website aren't linked together in analytics or webmasters but shows up in whois under the same company. I think the best bet is get all those links removed from footer and let the domains expire once it finishes - seems to serve no purpose. But the bigger question is what are good reasons I can feed back to the client that it's has a negative affect?
Link Building | | GetApp0 -
PR1 and PR2 backlinks
We're doing some content marketing. I've heard that it is a good idea to target even PR1 and PR2 sites (small DA sites). I'm concerned about these sites disappearing after a few months, as we've found that losing a backlink can sting a bit and be worse than never having it. Though this isn't as big a deal any more. Anyways, can somebody say when a PR1/PR2 backlink would be appropriate to go after? Some of them would be easy and if it's appropriate I'd like to include them. So far they would only pass our standards if they are Above PR0 Look like a white hat, quality site from the outside Have a clean backlink profile Look like they're going to stick around Successful Social Media Accounts a plus What are you guys' criteria for including these sites? Do you gain value from them?
Link Building | | BobGW0