Footer Back Links Question "Site by built by"
-
Hi all
I design and develop websites for clients within the UK. With each website I build, I always add a link to the footer of the website which links back to my website.
I have always used the link anchor text "Site By Jump" but then decided to try to use the link anchor text to our benefit by changing the links across all of our portfolio of sites to be:
"Graphic Design by Jump"
or
"Web Design by Jump"In the hope that this helped us rank better for those keyword phrases.
Now something occurred to me the day. Most of the websites I build have no relevance to the content on our website. For example, I could build a website for Baby Food and add a backlink to our homepage which doesn't even mention the words "baby food".
In some cases, the websites can have thousands of pages, each with this footer link appearing at the bottom of each page.
My question is, could these backlinks potentially be seen as black hat or spam to a search engine? I.e. thousands of backlinks from websites that have no relevance in terms of content all linking back to my homepage?
Thank you for reading and any advice would be greatly appreciated.
-
We have taken the view that we will leave our "site by" links alone, we are ranking well for key phrases and the danger being that changing these links will affect it.
That said, we have removed links from some client websites with poor DA and PR as a precaution and it doesn't seem to have done us any harm, in fact i think it may have improved SERPs on a few keywords, but a little early to say for sure.
-
And if we only knew what that tipping point was!
Thanks for the advice.
-
Sure, it's a tough decision as you never know how close you are to a penalty unfortunately.
I wouldn't go about changing the existing links on clients sites if you'r still ranking for these terms now but keep this in mind for any new links you acquire. Maybe link with just your brand name for most of them and then throw in the odd anchor text variation every now and then. You just need to avoid a tipping point where your profile starts to look suspicious.
-
Thanks for the advice Maximise.
The only issue with that is that we know from our analytics that visitors do actually find us by searching for some of the exact keyphrases we have in our back link anchor text. Just searching for (for example) "Web Designers UK" (or variations of that) is so saturated we long tail it or localise it which wins us clients. By removing the link from the "Web Design" part of the footer link I would be afraid that this would in time have a detrimental effect on our rankings for those search phrases.
I guess if we leave it as it is then there is always that risk that we could get a penalty anyway...
-
Hi Nathan
Do you link from every page on the sites you build or just the homepage?
I watched a Matt Cutts video the other day (<cite class="kv">www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0fgh5RIHdE)</cite> in which he explains that footer links get weighted less than links that are generally surrounded by page copy which I can understand but I was wondering if the sheer volume of these footer links, on a large site, all with the same anchor text could be seen as spammy?
I know we may never actually be 100% sure if they do or not but any thoughts or suggestions of members would be appreciated.
-
It sounds like many are concerned about this issue recently. It's a definite possibility that you could get an over optimisation penalty for the anchor text match and you could stop ranking for that term. I think the strategy going forward is probably to link back using your brand name or url only. If possible it would also be better if you can find a place for the link on your clients site that is not part of the main template so it doesn't cause a site wide link.
Consider changing your link to something like this:
Web Design by Jump
-
I understand completely what you are saying. I own a design firm in Atlanta, Georgia and we do a similar tactic. I personally, think it is important to vary your keywords you are targeting. It may look fishy that all your back links are keywords for web design.
A back-link from a site serves more of a purpose then just keywords. If the site receives a lot of traffic and people love the design they may click the link to see who designed it. We use the following anchor text " Powered By, Atlanta Small Business Web Design, Small Business Web Design, Developed By, Designed By and our link www.treelifedesigns.com
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
-
If someone were to link to our site on now on an old article (dating back 1-2 years) is that still beneficial if all other variables are good?
I'm trying to build up our external links and am finding lots of opportunities, some of which are on older articles dating back to 2014, 2013 etc. These pieces are relevant to our site and have high DA, I'm wondering if the post date of these articles matter? Thanks!
Link Building | | Postable0 -
Why don't some external links "count"?
A car-dealer client advertises through DexKnows, and the entry includes a link to the client's website. That link is not listed as a linking domain through OpenSite Explorer for the client's site. A competing car dealer also advertises through DexKnows, but that link is counted as a linking domain for the competitor. Why the difference? (I'm new and still learning -- linkbuilding appears to be my weakness.) Thank you!
Link Building | | TheOptimizer690 -
What benefit does a site with a low DA get from someone guest posting who links to a site with a high DA?
I'm relatively new to link building and although this may be an obvious question I can't seem to find an answer anywhere even after searching Google.
Link Building | | JoshED0 -
Creative link building ideas for law sites
I have a client who does not actively participate in the content writing or resource providing part of optimization or link building. I want to build some more links to the site outside of content spreading and guest blogging. I have read a lot of the recent articles on creative ways to build links but feel that most would not apply to this kind of site. Any ideas on creative link building methods for a law services info site?
Link Building | | webfeatseo0 -
Back linking via blogging
I asked a different question, which this one might over lap. Say your website has 100 pages, and you blog on different sites for back linking- should you do an article per page to keep the back linking to each page fresh? So for a person like me this would take me 100 days to recycle around. Just trying to figure out the best way to do back linking.
Link Building | | sansonj0 -
Link Location: In main page or inner "Link" page?
My question is what´s best of Link Building: have it in main page or in internal Link Pages. I have the problem that have to reduce the number of outgoing links in my mainpage to rank better, but do not want to miss any linkjuice. How Linking in Main Page or Internal Pages affects SERP for your website? And should they be Follow or not Follow? Thanks in advance Maria Jesus
Link Building | | goperformancelabs0 -
Are 36 links from one site to nested pages better than one link to the root domain?
I have a Driving School website www.1stclassdriving.co.uk. The site is structured geographically with 36 area pages, one
Link Building | | Brian_Worger
page per area post code and one page per Driving Instructor. I am trying to develop links and have found a site (da91 pa
63) where I can create area links to each of my area pages if I
wish. Is it best to just create one link to the root page or
should I create 36 individual links to each area page? - which is most valuable?0 -
Links from .edu sites
I have a band website and was thinking of making some link bait pages specifically designed to get links from high page rank music colleges and then funnel that page rank to my landing pages on my band site. I am planning on finding out what these colleges link to and create great information on pages on my site that the high page rank college websites will link to thereby boosting my trust and authority. How much will the trust and authority boost my site in the search engines? Because the colleges will be music colleges they should be relevant to my band site. Does this sound like a good strategy? Take care, Ron
Link Building | | Ron100