Moz Q&A is closed.
After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.
Do web design footer links of websites you build have value?
-
Hi everyone.
I am trying to build up DA for my site and create linking opportunities with my clients sites but I am not seeing any link value.
I just did a redesign with another firm and we built out www.denbow.com . We have links to our sites in the footer but for some reason it's not being indexed.
Can someone help me understand if it is good to put built by a href link in the footer? I've built almost 12 sites in my first 1.5 years of being in business for myself and I thought the links would pass some sort of value.
Thanks in advance for the help and education.
Regards,
Noob Gary
-
Powerful statement. Question everything and I like the statement. I want to keep learning and I want to do White hat principles for my clients to raise their DA and ultimately get found.
-
EGOL,
I appreciate you taking a stand on the position and question raised. I guess it all comes down to competition. I have only had my website and marketing business for two years. My competition has been doing this since 2010. They have a ton of the footer links coming back to their site which helps their DA which is presently a 34. If this helps them, why can't it work to help my DA while showing off my work?
I just wan to know what is right, so I don't do anything spammy but I can tell, my frustration with getting found is already putting me on the slippery slope of cutting corners.
G
-
Also just remember even hunters get lost in the forest, knowledge is a quest not an end result.
Question everything
-
Like I posted below, the CIMC is a digital marketing conference which MOZ is attending as an exhibitor. They have four links in their footer no of which are no follow.
Does this mean they are wrong?
They are rel="external" . Is that considered best practice?
G
-
Just so you know... there are people out there who will adamantly disagree with me.
When I post here, I am saying what I would do with my own websites.
If I was the web designer I would not use these links. If I was the web design client I would not want those links on my website.
-
Thanks for that,
Yes I've been under the impression that any external link in a footer is going to be looked at questionably by google, especially if it's promotional in nature. Since it can indicate a paid link.
I've watched a few competitors using that same tactic to increase their overall DA for freshsite starting, they 1st ranked great and quickly dropped for various keywords relating to that link placed.
Thanks again EGOL & Gary
-
Hi Deacyde,
I'm talking about the Website Designed By Constructiv Works type URL. It's purpose was two fold, one of which I have learned is bad. 1. it is to allow people who are looking at the site, if they like it, find me in the footer and come to my site. 2. To provide link value like almost every other site I have now reviewed.
Here's one I came across this morning with multiple URL's. http://digitalbuzz.ca/
How is this site any different? Denbow.com
"sometimes I think I know what I am doing...other times I feel like a child lost in the forest..."
-
My comments are related to a situation like this.
Egol.com is a webdesign business and designs a website for CarSeller.com. Egol.com puts links in the footer of CarSeller.com that point to his own website at Egol.com.
In my opinion, those links are manipulative if their anchor text is Egol.com and they are not nofollowed.
If they have anchor text of "Dallas Web Design" then that is really spammy.
-
Are we talking about navigational urls in footers? The kind say a CMS will naturally place there?
Or is this about external sites, which I completely understand, I don't understand how navigational menus in the footer, say of the most popular pages on the site could be considered manipulation or a scheme.
I understand the original poster ( Gary ) is speaking of his site's url on domains he designs in the footer, but now this talk has me wondering the wording of google.
Thanks for the further clarification.
-
Hi EGOL,
I consider myself a white hat SEO person but I honestly didn't know about this. So am I a "good designer" probably not because I didn't know and everyday I am learning. I am working on trying to build out better and better sites with good design and UX.
However, am I someone who wants to learn from mistakes and improve? Yes, yes I can definitively tell you I am.
Thanks for the slap on the wrist and telling me to get my stuff together. Also, thanks for sharing the information so I can get better...
G
-
Designers want those links for their ranking value. That is manipulative intent.
Any good designer should know that Google dislikes site-wide footer links and links placed with manipulative intent. They should also know about nofollow.
These kinds of links will never be on one of my websites.
-
Gotcha. That makes sense and yet I am hoping that people in this person's network are looking for a webdesigner then they will click on and find me. But if that is spammy, I will remove it.
Didn't even think this was not good practice... almost two years in and still learning about the moving target.
Thanks again.
G
-
GOOGLE: "Here are a few common examples of unnatural links that may violate our guidelines:"
- Widely distributed links in the footers or templates of various sites
These links are "manufactured" for the purpose of manipulating the search engines. That is exactly why a lot of web design firms place them in the footer of their client's websites.
**you are spammy if you put a link in the footer to your site? Is that correct? **
It's not spammy if you nofollow the link. That removes the manipulation.
You could add "Web design by Egol.com" to the footer in unlinked text and that brand mention might be helpful for your rankings without it being a link.
-
Thanks EGOL.
So if your a webdesigner and you built a site for a client, you are spammy if you put a link in the footer to your site? Is that correct?
Gary
-
According to Google it is a link scheme. If the anchor text is keyword optimized then it is also linkspam.
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
-
How to fix core web vital issue on shopify website , any recommned app from shopfiy store?
I'm facing challenges optimizing Core Web Vitals on my Shopify store. Does anyone have experience with Shopify apps that effectively address LCP, FID, and CLS issues? Any specific recommendations would be greatly appreciated.
Technical SEO | Sep 9, 2024, 2:52 PM | faizalialiali0 -
Redirecting an Entire Website?
Is it best to redirect an old website to a new website page by page to like pages or just the entire site all at once to the home page of the new site? I do have about 10 good pages on the site that are worth directing to corresponding pages on the new site. Just trying to figure out what is going to preserve the most link juice. Thanks for the help!
Technical SEO | Apr 7, 2024, 8:55 AM | photoseo10 -
Is SEO effected of putting an external link in the primary navigation of a website?
I have a customer, www.xxx.com. This site has good traffic, low bounce rate (28%), 2:00 min avg time on site, and 45% return visitor rating. No spam rankings, etc. Good load time. Another site, www.yyy.com, has sent out a request for them to add them as a new link in www.xxx.com's primary navigation - using a title such as "abc" (not the name of the company or site of yyy.com). This second site, www.yyy.com, has a bounce rate of 98%, avg time on site is :30, and 10.2% return visitor rate. No spam flags noted in Open Site explorer. Plus they are asking other sites similar to www.xxx.com to do the same thing. Questions/Concerns and Feedback appreciated: Will yyy.com's analytics and quality pass back to xxx.com and cause Google or algorithms to flag or penalize xxx.com? (It ranks #1 for quite a few things.) The relevancy between the sites is good -same industry, same business objectives. From a usability standpoint, isn't it more appropriate to place a link to another website in a different way? e.g. a promotional graphic wit a link or anchor text links? Isn't it more appropriate to ask another business for links - not using the primary nav of a site? (It seems yyy.com is essentially asking other sites for 'free advertising/promotion.' Thanks!
Technical SEO | Mar 10, 2016, 4:01 AM | mundsack0 -
Updating inbound links vs. 301 redirecting the page they link to
Hi everyone, I'm preparing myself for a website redesign and finding conflicting information about inbound links and 301 redirects. If I have a URL (we'll say website.com/website) that is linked to by outside sources, should I get those outside sources to update their links when I change the URL to website.com/webpage? Or is it just as effective from a link juice perspective to simply 301 redirect the old page to the new page? Are there any other implications to this choice that I may want to consider? Thanks!
Technical SEO | Jun 13, 2014, 11:18 AM | Liggins0 -
Footer Links with same anchor text on all pages
We have different websites targeted at the different services our company provides. (e.g. For our document storage services, we have www.ukdocumentstorage.com. For document management, we have www.document-management-solutions.co.uk). If we take the storage site for example, every single page has a link in the footer to our document management site, with the anchor text 'Cleardata Document Management' SEOMoz is telling me that these are seen as external links (as they are on a different URL's), and I'm just clarifying that would this be a major possible factor in the website not ranking highly? How should I rectify this issue?
Technical SEO | Apr 5, 2013, 2:47 PM | janc0 -
Dofollow and Nofollow links
What is the difference between dofollow and nofollow links? I know that some sites/blogs only let you post nofollow links. In such a case how do I know if a comment I posted on a certain site will be a nofollow or dofollow? How about big traffic sites such as Huff Post. Do they only allow nofollow links?
Technical SEO | Oct 16, 2020, 10:51 PM | greenfoxone0 -
Do web pages have to be linked to a menu?
I have a situation where people search for terms like, say 1978 one dollar bill. Even though there never was a 1978 one dollar bill. I want to make a page to capture these searches but since there wasn't such a thing as a one dollar bill I don't want it connected to the rest of my content which is reality based. Does that make sense? Anyway, my question is, can I publish pages that aren't linked to my menu structure but that will be searchable or, am I going to have to figure out a way to make these oddball pages accessible through my menu?
Technical SEO | Apr 19, 2012, 8:05 AM | Banknotes0 -
If a redirecting URL has more value than the website should I move it?
Client has two website addresses: Website A is a redirect to Website B. It has one indexed page. But this is the URL being used in collateral. It has the majority of back links, and citations everywhere list Website A as the URL. Website B is where the actual website lives. Google recognizes and indexes the 80+ pages. This website has very few backlinks going to it. This setup does not seem good for SEO. Moreover, the analytics data is completely messed up because Website B shows that the biggest referral source is... you guessed it Website A. I'm thinking going forward, I should: Move all the content from Website B to Website A. Setup Website B to permanently 301 Redirect to Website A. Is that the best course of action?
Technical SEO | Mar 9, 2011, 2:01 AM | flowsimple0