WBF told me to get rid of my low contrast footer links...
-
I just finished watching WBF where Rand took a moment to identify some of the potentially harmful SEO practices that could be penalized in the upcoming algo update targeting over-optimization. (Great post BTW!) One of which was using low contrast, exact match footer links to inner pages.
But I couldn't help but notice something similar being done on the SEOmoz site. In the attached image, I compare this to a site I've done using a similar practice.
What are your thoughts on footer links found in this example and how should we, as SEOs, handle footer links in the future?
-
I agree with you, but you see it quite a lot - especially people trying to optimise for multiple location based variations.
-
Correct me if I'm wrong but surely adding more internal links to pages on your site with different keywords would dilute your overall link value, and therefore you're actually doing yourself no favours anyway?
-
I took it to be the kind of footers that are there to create spammy internal links for multiple permutations of particular keywords. The fact that they're not just low contract, but so unnoticeable that that the link really can't be there for any user benefit.
It seems that more than ever, it's a good idea to ask yourself what the reason is to add something to the web page...
-
Hi Alex,
I agree with what you're saying about distracting you from the content of the site, but if you've reached the footer chances are you've already read the important information on the page.
Links in the footer tend to be the boring Terms and Conditions, Privacy Policy, Contact Us and maybe a few social media links, and lets be honest we don't immediately visit a site and expect to see that information in our faces or in the main navigation or above the fold.
It's a shame that there aren't more tools or extensions available that will allow us as website developers to optimise our site and code to help users with more diverse accessibility issues.
-
<title>SEOMoz Rand Fishkins Response | Footer Link Best Practices</title>
Footer Link Best Practices by Rand Fishkin, CEO of SEOMOZ
Ooops - did I over optimize this reply?
Hear us, Rand, hear us.
-
Thanks for the responses. I agree with Ben, in that all text should be readable and not hidden in anyway. But I also think there is a need to have lower contrast text to avoid distracting users from other elements on the page.
If I'm reading content on a page, I don't want to be distracted by the footer links. On the flip side, if I can't find something, I look to the footer for some navigational help.
And Mark, I'll be curious to see what Rand has to say as well (although I'm not counting on it). I know he's a busy guy. I would certainly welcome a response from any of his knowledgeable staff.
Thanks again!
-
I think this goes back to the days where people sued to have a whole bunch of spammy links in the footers of their sites and changed the colour of the text to match the background of the footer in an attempt to fool search engines and get higher up in the rankings.
I can certainly see why its an accessibility issue for users using screen-readers to navigate through the web. Sometimes I view my own website using Lynx on my Linux command-line to see where I can improve my website accessibility.
-
I asked a similar question in the comments on today's WBF.
It wasn't clear to me whether the focus was on low-contrast, for-seo-purposes-only only keyword phrases or the concept of footer links in general.
Looking forward to some clarification from Rand, the Master of the Board.
-
I think that you need to have good contrast between text colours and background to ensure good usability of the site.
I always make sure that my designs don't have any combination of green text on red background (and vice versa) because visitors who are colour blind won't be able to clearly read the text on a page.
I can see why Google is pushing for this to be a ranking factor as it should lead to more accessible websites being produced, but I don't see how the algorithm can determine low contrast on a website.
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 get a mobile thumbnail image next to the search result?
Hey! I noticed the last few months that a lot of google searches now show an image next to your result when on mobile. i managed to get my listing to show an image before but I made some changes to the image and site and can’t seem to get Google to ahow the new image (or any image). I’ve added the image to schema mark up and still no luck. Wouod ahyone have any advice on how to get the image picked up, or st least help increase the odds? The site is https://tourstoniagarafalls.com and you can see it on search (for me it shows on the bottom of page 1) for the keyword “Niagara Falls tours“. Thanks again!
On-Page Optimization | | Originaladam0 -
Query string parameters and canonical links
Hello everyone, My site uses query string parameters in a few places to manage tasks like pagination of lists. Eg: http://www.example.com/destinations/somewhere?page=2 I have set a canonical link with the href of the page without the query string but still getting thousands of duplicate title/meta description reports from these pages. Is there something I can do to change this? Do search engines actually penalise for use of query string parameters like this? They seem so commonplace, even for sites which use an absolute URI with no query string to serve content. Thanks 🙂
On-Page Optimization | | JHWXS0 -
Tips for Getting a Very Small Site to Rank
I am working on a very small (two page) site for a client, and trying to rank for some very competitive local terms. The site is www.arlingtonbuilders.com, and our terms center around local cities (like Arlington) plus "custom homes," "custom renovations," etc. I feel very limited in terms of what I can do on the site, and I'm building citations offsite, but I feel stuck. I'd love some tips for helping them rank better without building out an entire site.
On-Page Optimization | | ScottImageWorks3 -
Handling multiple locations in the footer
I have a client with several locations. Should I include only the main office's address in the footer? The client is wanting to add them all.
On-Page Optimization | | SearchParty0 -
How does a keyword get crawled and pointed at a certain page
I was wondering if you can give me some insight on how a keyword that I put on my campaign gets linked to a specific URL on my website by SEOMoz or Google. For example: updating a brick fireplace is my keyword. On the campaign when I am looking at my on page optimization, the URL assigned (or given) to it is my homepage. How is this determined and is there a way around it and or directing it to the correct page? Thanks
On-Page Optimization | | SammyT0 -
I have a question about on page links or duplicate contant
Ok help me out here friends. I’m working with the warnings and errors for my site. I have two problems that relate to each other and I want to know if you had to choose what problem what would you choose. I’m running into some duplicate content and title errors because under categories for my products there are so many products that it creates more than one page and with each new page it has the same title or same content on the page. I tried to make this less in some cases by showing more products per page like 100 items and in most cases per category it will only show one page now. Now some times there’s still more than one page and also this creates too many links now on that category page. So I think I can get rid of all the to many on page links but it will make more pages and duplicate content and title tag. What would you guys do?
On-Page Optimization | | Dataken0 -
More than 100 internal links from a page
Hi, we have been developing our new site and improving the internal linking for 2 reasons, 1 to improve spidering and 2 to up sell more to customers. The error reports from SEOMoz are showing our biggest problem is too many internal links from 2000+ pages. How much of an impact does it have by having say 180 internal links compared to say 99 on a page? Our website has been moving up the SERPs so should i worry about it or should I ignore the warnings and continue with the menu system and internal linking we have in place already? Thanks
On-Page Optimization | | PottyScotty0 -
Too Many On-Page Links
I recently took on a website design client and ran his website through a battery of tests using Pro to take a look at the crawl errors. One that seems to stump me is the error "Too many On-Page links" concerning his blog. (http://franksdesigns.com/wp/blog) This is the first time I've seen this error and am rather confused. The report says there are 104 links on this page. However, I'm having trouble grasping this concept or finding the 104 links. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated. Thank you for your support!
On-Page Optimization | | WebLadder0