Why do hallmarks from web design companies carry so much ranking weight for the recipient website?
-
Website designers/developers place hallmarks (Website Designed by XXXX) in the footer region of the web sites they have designed/built, how much ranking value do these hallmarks have being that they're pointing from sites that are irrelevant to the web designer's, and why?
-
You would think...
Hey there Chris, thanks for contributing. I agree with everything you said, but something seems to be amiss with what's going on. There's the "should be", if we go by Google, and there's the "what is", when we look at how things really play out in the real world of ranking.
I don't want to beat a dead horse, the subject has been brought up many times before on how so many websites seem to get away with what appears to be blunt infractions of Google's rules, but in all honesty, I never before had to consider hallmarks as a competing factor, I don't even know how they're perceived by search engines.
How would a website designer who builds high quality sites but in small numbers compete with a designer who spits out low quality sites in high numbers? Should hallmarks be a contributing factor? Do they have a rightful place in influencing rank?
-
Hello GKLA, thanks for your response.
What brought this topic to a head was a call I received from a friend who just happens to be a website designer. To simplify things let's call my friend Joe. Joe is a high-end website designer who builds an average of three to four websites a year, and despite what may seem to be a small number of sites, he makes a pretty good living. Joe's designs reflects this artistry and in addition to being a great designer he also as an eye for information architecture. He uses illustrators photographers, and content writers who are on top of their game, so most of his creations are co-produced. His own website/domain is about 7 years old and though classy and well structured, competitor websites of lesser quality and substance are always out ranking Joe's site, so I did a competitive analysis to see what was going on.
In examining Joe's competitors, I looked at other probable ranking variables and found the hallmarks as being the major contributing factor to their superior ranking in comparison to Joe's website. Joe guards his links and is very selective when it comes to giving and receiving links. Surprisingly, Joe doesn't use hallmarks. When I asked him about not using hallmarks Joe replied that it wouldn't be in good taste considering his clients' stature, and I agree.
Obviously the placement of the hallmarks is assumptive on the designer's behalf, meaning that they were placed on the host sites probably without the direct approval or acknowledgement of the client, a common practice among web designers, so they're not really earned links by definition (merit). I too share the opinion that website designers who place hallmarks on the sites they create without disclosure or grant are taking advantage of their clients as well as taking advantage of a linking scheme available only to them, website designers. I mean, what other industry or practice on the Internet gets to use and benefit from hallmarks as a ranking factor?
-
Hello Moosa, thank you for your answer. Case studies in our lab show that both Panda and Penguin have fallen short of what they were supposedly programmed to do - meaning that despite the placement of exact anchor text throughout multiple sites, (hundreds) and on multiple pages of a site, Google's algorithm updates, Panda and Penguin , are apparently failing to devalue their ranking influence. Here's an excerpt from Google Webmaster Tools regarding Link Schemes...
"Your site's ranking in Google search results is partly based on analysis of those sites that link to you. The quantity, quality, and relevance of links influences your ranking. The sites that link to you can provide context about the subject matter of your site, and can indicate its quality and popularity."
I guess with a comment like the one above you can read whatever you want into it. The part that says, "site's that link to you" implies the act of willingly giving a citation. Another is "relevance", if I'm a web designer and put my hallmark on a biochemistry site I built, how is biochemistry (health care, construction, pharmacy, etc) relevant to web design? I don't get it.
Can it be that Google and other search engines give web design sites and their hallmarks special consideration?
-
I've often wondered if these designers inform their customers that random outbound links on their webpages may affect their search rankings.
Website designers who place hallmarks in the footer section of sites they create, in my opinion are taking advantage of non-tech savvy clients. Years ago, it probably was a much bigger benefit to the designer, than it is today with the algo changes. But, it probably still bears some weight.
-
Semantically the links in the footer should have to have lowest value but after the panda and penguin update same link in the footer of multiple website may question the quality of link and anchor text.
I think it’s good to have a link from few websites but having link from every website they made with same or slightly varied anchor text might hurt the overall link profile instead of providing benefits.
-
There may be value in the domain diversity that they provide. There's no need to put them on more than a page or two of the client's site. The fact that they're in the footer reduces their value. the fact that they're on irrelevant websites reduces their value. That many web design firms hammer on the exact match anchor text may be the worst thing about most of them.
Be modest in how many you put on the client's site and diversify your anchor text and you'll be OK.
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
-
Can a company group have reciprocal links on their company websites without being penalised by Google?
A client which is part of a group of businesses all within one industry but have different purposes has come to us aith a "brilliant idea" that they all have a blog on their website that links to every business within their group. We are pretty sure that this will be seen as "black hat" by Google, but just wanted to see what you all thought? Thanks!
Link Building | | RedAntSolutions0 -
Wrong page ranking and rank drop, help!
Dear Moz community I would like to hear your advice about our current SEO problems. Our website is www.poolsonline.nl. This is a website where people can learn the Polish language on our website. This website has been online since 2007. The website got really outdated, so we built and launched a new version on March 1st (one month ago). We have created a salespage that we would like to rank for the keywords 'cursus Pools' (Polish course) first of all and 'pools leren' (learn Polish) secondly. The page is https://www.poolsonline.nl/cursus-pools-leren-spreken/ The old website was on rank 4-5 (roughly) for 'cursus Pools' and 'pools leren'. When we launched the new website we were on the top 5 with two of our pages. We were even on rank 1 and our salespage was also showing on the first page and often also in the top 5 (below the 'wrong' page of ours). We got quite a lot of trafic and new clients. However the problem was that the wrong page was ranking higher. We wanted our salespage to rank and not our home page (https://www.poolsonline.nl/) and not our free lesson (https://www.poolsonline.nl/lessen/groeten-en-gesprek-voeren-in-het-pools-les-1/). So what we did: Read/watched recourses about this problem: https://moz.com/blog/wrong-page-ranks-for-keywords-whiteboard-friday and https://moz.com/blog/wrong-page-ranking-in-the-results-6-common-causes-5-solutions and others. Removed the keywords (cursus pools en Pools leren) from the wrong pages (home and free lesson pages). Optimized the Salespage for these keywords Improved internal linking with these key words to our salespage Worked on link building for our salepage. We got about 5-10 links to our salespage in the first week of March (5 seems to be significant for this competition and we are working on more). These links are not yet in Moz OSE, but Google has indexed these pages and links. For reference, here are some of these links (not all): http://www.iculture.nl/apps/ik-spreek-pools-taalcursus-pools-op-iphone/ http://linktopoland.com/nl/cursus-pools-leren-spreken/ http://naukaholenderskiego.pl/artykuly/aplikacje/rozmawiamy-po-niderlandzku-aplikacja-na-iphone-i-ipad/ http://pnkv.nl/nieuwsbericht.php?bericht=rozmowy-po-polsku-juz-po-6-miesiacach http://poolsewoorden.nl/pools-leren/aanmelden/ http://poniderlandzku.nl/ Shared and promoted our salespage on social media What we expected: Our salespage to show up on top for these keywords Our ranking to improve What happened: Our salespage disappeared all together from the search results for these search terms (it does show up for more specific search queries, for example 'cursus pools leren spreken') Our site seems to keep dropping lower and lower. We are now on the bottom of page 1 or on page 2 for 'cursus Pools' and 'Pools leren' and not with the desired page Questions we have for you to help us: Why do you think our salespage is not showing up anymore for these keywords ('cursus pools' and 'pools leren')? Do you think we got a penalty for over optimization or bad links? What can we more to get our salespage to rank for these keywords? (we are working on building/earning more links) What can we do to restore our rankings and not drop lower anymore? Do we need to give our efforts more time? How long? Any other adivce? Thanks so much in advance!
Link Building | | rdudkiewicz0 -
Blacklist IP on Barracuda hurt your Rankings?
Hey Everyone, I was wondering, I ran a website IP address on http://mxtoolbox.com/ and the website was on the blacklist on only one place that is on BARRACUDA. **Also the website other than that the site is clean. ** Domain clean by Google Safe Browsing: Domain clean by Norton Safe Web: Domain clean on Phish tank: Domain clean on the Opera browser: Domain clean by SiteAdvisor: Domain clean by the Sucuri Malware Labs blacklist: Domain clean on Yandex (via Sophos): Domain clean by ESET: So I have 2 questions. The site in question is a Classifieds Ad Website
Link Building | | EVERWORLD.ENTERTAIMENT
1. Does your ranking get affected if you are associated with a website who is linked to you and is on the blacklist for spam only on Barracuda?
**2. If a website has a bad rating on WOT or WEBUTATION. Does that also hurt your ranking? ** Your help is appreciated. Thanks.0 -
3 Month Delay in Domain Rank?
Our domain rank was around 40, then we hired an SEO company and our Domain Rank went up to 80, now we see it back down to 40. When we asked our SEO company, they said this was due to a 3 month delay in Domain Rank numbers. Is this true?
Link Building | | allurez0 -
Automated indexing software / website ?
I am entertaining the idea of using an indexing software / website. Would appreciate seomoz members user experience with those tools wether positive or negative .
Link Building | | sherohass0 -
How much important is the connection between content and backlink relevancy?
My question is about the connection between web page content and backlink relevancy, how much it is important? Let’s have an example: If I publish a guest post about “cell phone model review” and get a link back to my website which is on the subject of “cell phone monitoring”. Now my question is: Is this a relevant and good quality backlink? As content is about “cell phone Model Review” while the backlink is about “cell phone Monitoring”, How Google would take this as if; 1- Anchor text is “cell phone monitoring” 2- Anchor text is URL based
Link Building | | shaz_lhr0 -
Page Rank Update
I was hit by Google’s latest Page Rank update. I know “don’t be obsessed with Page Rank”, but it concerns me. I thought that I was developing a very good link profile and actually was hopeful that it would go to a PR-5 and it dropped to a PR-3. www.simply-bags.com I have another site www.keepsakes-etc.com and have done very little link building and it also dropped to a PR-3. Can anyone give me some honest feedback about my concern?
Link Building | | b4tv0 -
Different Ranking for "dermatology jobs"
Ranking for "dermatology jobs" (<cite>www.dermbuzz.com )</cite> on google.in (INDIA) is on first page whereas on google.com (USA) its on 6th page
Link Building | | getpromoted0