What about that stuffed footer?
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Whether you look at zappos.com, bol.com, or other e-commerce websites you will almost always see a footer that is full of links to categories & subcategories.
These elements aren't really attractive, and to be honest, I don't think I ever clicked on one of those links because most of the time I don't reach the bottom of such pages.
Why do these companies use these kinds of footers? Is it for SEO purpose,? Are those links passing juice? Aren't those links at the bottom of the page and therefore not that relevant as other links used in paragraphs? Aren't they contributing to too many on-page links? Maybe only use it on homepage?
I'm really looking forward to the opinions of the experts here at the forum...
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SEO for large websites is different than SEO for small or mid-sized websites. Zappos.com has over 6 million pages indexed by Google. Having 200 footer links is very helpful for the search engines in this situation.
Go back to the days of, "every page in 3 clicks". It's still a sound policy as it makes it easier for the search engines to not only find pages, but the pages can still have enough Page Rank to be viable and not supplemental.
I picked several unusual shoes (well, at least unusual to me). For each shoe I was able to get to it's specific product page in 3 or 4 clicks. Even though some shoe brands or styles have paginated listings going 30+ deep - Zappos.com has found a way to provide a much quicker path to the product pages.
Rottentomatoes.com also has a slick footer navigation that gets to any movie within 3 clicks.
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For those two particular websites they have so much content that the stuffed footer although not high on design attractiveness makes the site more usable for humans.
If you see a stuffed footer with a site with less than 100 pages; then it is an SEO tactic...an outdated one at that.
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Anchor filled footers are a traditional SEO strategy usually to create links with the anchor text that the site owner is seeking to boost rankings for various site pages, although their effect is questionable now-days. They're also used for navigation purposes, but I think the key here is relevancy; if the links are relevant and add to the user experience, then thumbs up, otherwise, small links tucked away at the bottom of the page look a bit dodgy, to us and the search engines.
The links pass juice internally (or externally if they're not nofollowed) and they probably won't have as much weight as a link higher up the page used in a relevant sentence.
Try reading this article by Rand on the subject, I got some good tips from it;
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/footer-link-optimization-for-search-engines-user-experience
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