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.
Over Optimization & Footer Links for Crediting Web Design to a Company
-
With the recent updates to the algorithm having to do with link networks and over optimization it has got me to thinking about the footer links we add to each site that we build and do web design for linking back to ours. I could certainly see how Google could make the assumption that these are all on the same server, pointing back to one main site, and penalize us for that. Should we no=follow these links? They may say something like, "Website Designed By: Company Name". They do provide a valuable source to some extent of traffic to the site from people interested in our designs. Any thoughts?
-
These links are not editorial earned but I have mixed feelings about them, here's why:
I don't have a problem when a designer ads one text or image link with their brand name in the footer, as long as the client is happy with it. If you've designed an awesome site that link may act as lead gen.
However, I have noticed designers getting a bit crazy with this and adding multiple (2,3,4 more) keyword rich text links (web design, web development, web deigners location etc etc) in footers which I really do have a problem with as they are only there for one reason. It looks spammy on the client's site and may actually get their site penalised.
- topic:timeago_earlier,3 months
-
I just asked a similar question here :
(I didn't see this existing topic)
The advice I received was :
-
Use only your brand name in anchor text when linking from client websites
-
A single link from a clients home page is probably better than linking from every page.
-
- topic:timeago_earlier,21 days
-
Just found an interesting post in webmaster world that kinda answers how Google may feel about these typs of links.
http://www.webmasterworld.com/google/4445558.htm
This is going to mess up a lot of Web Design firms if they start to enforce this.
-
Dan, thanks for getting involved in the discussion. It is funny that most design firms carry out this practice and I have never heard it discussed before. I will have to look into using a micro format for this as I had not thought about that before. I guess we will soon find out what role that plays in appears as part of a "link scheme" or not with the new update rolling out soon. Thanks again.
-
I have always been curious as to how the SE's treat this. Yes, it is probably not a good idea if you are hosted on the same server as the rest of your client's websites, but looking at the current proposed changes as to what may possibly be a penalty, I think that it wouldn't matter much where they are hosted.
I am really interested if anyone has any suggestions or thoughts on a way to give a creative credit to the organization that created the design or creative work i.e) "website design by company " using a micro format or HTML tag.
If the word coming down the pipe is a concentration on natural optimization, then calling a brown dog, a brown dog so to speak by using the proper citation would never be spammy. So linking to your website with "website design by company" shouldn't be penalized, nor should it require a no-follow if it is citing the creative origin, right? Am I making sense, it would be no different than an Author citation.
Reading on this topic today made me think about this, so what would be the most appropriate, a micro-format or some other tag? IDK, but if I come to a conclusion, you will be the first to know.
-
In that case, I would not sweat over it. If you think about it, companies can't control who links to them. Imagine all those Wordpress, Blogspot Blogs, which have a sitewide blogroll. If a mommy blogger created a blog 5 years ago and linked to Disney.com for example, and now she does not even remember that she created a blog...what can Disney.com do about it and they are all from username.wordpress.com kind of URLs, so all from the same IP.
Anyways, long story short, all kinds of links...add up to become a natural link profile. For Web Design companies, this is fairly common in my opinion and good news is that you are using brand as a keyword, so I don't think there's something to be worried about. Going forward, if I were you, I would nofollow the links. But leave the old ones as is unless there's an issue in which case you could add nofollow to those existing links as well.
-
1. Yes
2. No, they only link to our main web design/seo site. Not us to them except in some cases where we have a case study for example.
3.Not as many as we would like
But to honestly answer your question I would say say our clients make up 1/2 of our link profile and many of them are in the global footer so are sitewide.4. Probably 20 sites right now
We are only using branded company name in anchor text. Thanks for the feedback.
-
I would ask you the following questions:
- Are all the client sites on the same server ?
- Do you have a clients page where you link back to each of your clients ?
- How does your link profile look ? Do you have lots of other links ?
- How many client sites are we talking ? 10/20/50/500/1000 ? And then how would you compare them to the total links you have ?
If your link profile is mostly natural, I wouldn't worry about it that much. But going forward you could nofollow them. Also, what's the anchor text in your links ? Your Company Name or Website Designed ? Do more of Brand Name, combined with Anchor Text. So all sorts of variations. Do not make them consistent.
I hope that helps.
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
-
Having a Subfolder/Subdirectory With a Different Design Than the Root Domain
Hi Everyone, I was wondering what Google thinks about having a subfolder/subdirectory with a different design than the root domain. So let's say we have MacroCorp Inc. which has been around for decades. MacroCorp has tens of thousands of backlinks and a couple thousand referring domains from quality sites in its industry and news sites. MacroCorp Inc. spins off one of its products into a new company called MicroCorp Inc., which makes CoolProduct. The new website for this company is CoolProduct.MacroCorp.com (a subdomain) which has very few backlinks and referring domains. To help MicroCorp rank better, both companies agree to place the MicroCorp content at MacroCorp.com/CoolProduct/. The root domain (MacroCorp.com) links to the subfolder from its navigation and MicroCorp does the same, but the MacroCorp.com/CoolProduct/ subfolder has an entirely different design than the root domain. Will MacroCorp.com/CoolProduct/ be crawled, indexed, and rank better as both companies think it would? Or would Google still treat the subfolder like a subdomain or even a separate root domain in this case? Are there any studies, documentation, or links to good or bad examples of this practice? When LinkedIn purchased Lynda.com, for instance, what if they kept the https://www.lynda.com/ design as is and placed it at https://www.linkedin.com/learning/. Would the pre-purchase (yellow/black design) https://www.linkedin.com/learning/ rank any worse than it does now with the root domain (LinkedIn) aligned design? Thanks! Andy
Web Design | Aug 30, 2019, 4:02 PM | AndyRCWRCM1 -
Mergers & Acquisitions - Website Transition Good practice
Hi everyone, I was wondering if anyone has come across good practice for maintaining websites after a merger or acquisition where there needs to be an association between two websites of the two companies involved. For an acquisition, I'm considering moving the acquired company to a sub domain of the parent company e.g. aquiredcompany.parentcompany.com. On both websites there wmay be a prominant popup so visitors can switch between the websites if they have visited the incorrect one. One worry I have is the acquired company has some good rankings, which I want to keep. I will of course manage the process through 301 redirects. But I was wondering if anyone has any thoughts on this approach or can suggest any better solutions. Thanks in advance, Stuart
Web Design | Nov 30, 2015, 10:49 PM | Stuart260 -
Spotted Hidden Omiod Links in Footer - What do you think is Going on Here?
Hi guys, Hoping one of you have come across this before. While taking a look at the source code for a website I've recently started working on, I spotted some 'display:none' code in the footer of the page. Here's a snapshot of the code: close XMETAhead title : 404 Page Not Found | ( 39 chrs ) [http://www.omiod.com/chrome-extensions/meta-seo-inspector/info.php?meta=description&cont=404 Page Not Found.](<a href=)" title="more about description" target="_blank" class="ad_seo_link">description : 404 Page Not Found( 170 chrs )[http://www.omiod.com/chrome-extensions/meta-seo-inspector/info.php?meta=keywords&cont=404, 404 error page,](<a href=) " title="more about keywords" target="_blank" class="ad_seo_link">keywords : 404, 404 error page ( 7 items )SCRIPThttp://www.google.com/s2/favicons?domain=www.google-analytics.com">www.google-analytics.com http://www.google-analytics.com/ga.js <div< a="">class="ad_seo_title">HTML5 report</div<>Doctype is not HTML5, there are no HTML5 tags, but at least no obsolete HTML tags were found. 1/5
Web Design | Sep 16, 2014, 9:26 PM | ecommercebc0 -
How to put 'Link to this article' HTML code at bottom of article & is it helpful?
Hello, I was thinking about putting a box down at the bottom of my client's main articles that let's the reader easily copy the html code it takes to link to the article they're reading. Maybe I'd put it after the author bio. Do any of you do this? If so, what format do you use? It has to look nice of course. This is a non-techie industry. Thanks.
Web Design | Jan 11, 2013, 4:26 AM | BobGW0 -
What is the difference of HTML5 and web 2.0? What is web 2.0 and is this better for seo?
A little bit confused with the new stuff. The web 2.0 webpages are so much better? What changes?
Web Design | Mar 2, 2012, 7:58 AM | Naghirniac0 -
Where is the best place to put reciprocal links on our website?
Where should reciprocal links be placed on our website? Should we create a "Resources" page? Should the page be "hidden" from the public? I know there is a right answer out there! Thank you for your help! Jay
Web Design | Jun 21, 2012, 7:51 AM | theideapeople0 -
Drop Down Menus & SEO?
Do these typically have a negative impact on SEO? I know this is kind of a vague question, does it make it harder to spider? Are there SEO friendly ways of coding these? There are so many sites out there that have these, so I've got to assume it's different on a case by case basis.
Web Design | Oct 12, 2011, 3:58 PM | MichaelWeisbaum0 -
Site-wide footer links or single "website credits" page?
I see that you have already answered this question before back in 2007 (http://www.seomoz.org/qa/view/2163), but wanted to ask your current opinion on the same question: Should I add a site-wide footer link to my client websites pointing to my website, or should I create a "website credits" page on my clients site, add this to the footer and then link from within this page out to my website?
Web Design | Apr 14, 2011, 11:21 AM | eseyo0