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.
-
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.
-
-
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
-
Avg Page Load Time Increase After Responsive Web Design
The Avg. Page Load Time has been steadily increasing after our website went responsive. What could have cause this?
Web Design | | JMSCC1 -
Good web design layouts
Hello, Where do you guys go to get inspiring new ideas for web design layouts. I'm making a portfolio and need one more design. I'm thinking 4 is enough sample sites. So far I have 3. Thanks!
Web Design | | BobGW1 -
Too many Internal Links: A good thing or bad thing?
According to Moz i have over 500 links on some pages, GWT says about 400 with most (90%) having about 210 links. When I eyeball the site it should have no more than 30 to 40, but my web agency tells me its because the way the CMS works (DotNetNuke) that all pages are linked via the top navigation. Does this mean that my internal linking strategy is flawed before i even start to consider which pages I want to have more links to? Our site www.over50choices.co.uk was rebranded & moved to the new CMS in June 2013. Should i be concerned or is this OK? Ash
Web Design | | AshShep10 -
Would you consider these website designs an upgrade?
Hello everyone, I've asked a few questions in here regarding website design, etc. So first I want to thank you guys for the responses, and second I want to apologize I hope I am not boring you guys. I just feel like this is a forum of qualified people and I value your opinions greatly. Now to my question, I am considering a redesign as we are not happy with our current site located http://www.studentdebtrelief.us/. We think it feels outdated, not structured well, no good call to actions, ten different fonts, blurry images, does have good integration with social media, boring and bland news page, etc. I just wanted some opinions on these other sites that were designed by the fellow we are considering hiring. I've gotten some feedback from a friend that he doesn't think they would be an upgrade from our current site, which I totally disagree with. Though I am the first to admit design/creativity is not my strong suit, so I don't value my own opinion on this very much either, lol. I am hoping I can get some insight from you guys here. Do you think the designs below are of higher quality than our current site? Would you be more inclined to continue reading these sites than our own? Is there one in particular you think is the best? http://www.jayhafling.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/archive.jpg http://www.jayhafling.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/zazachat.jpg http://www.jayhafling.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/jetpeppers3.jpg http://www.jayhafling.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/pbs_9001.png http://www.jayhafling.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/fidgetfeed.png http://www.jayhafling.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/haute.jpg http://www.jayhafling.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/worketc-732x1362.jpg Thanks for the help
Web Design | | DemiGR0 -
Finding a good wordpress web developer for SEO fixes
I have gotten a good audit done of my site now it is time to get the fixes done. I have a developer I worked with for a long time that is good at coding and fixes on my site. However I am not confident in his abilities to execute some of the seo changes that need to be done. Their are some common stuff he can tackle but when it comes to GWT and proper handling of 404's and 301's and other seo tasks I am not sure if he is the right choice.Maybe due to a lack of experience of dealing with the issues I have or is just not his specialty or web devs just don't know seo...lol.... Is obvious a lot of SEO's don't make the changes themselves but leave it up to the devs to handle it their suggestions and fixes. But from my experience devs are not so well versed in seo and you have a hard time knowing if they are doing it correct or can even do it.(of course they will say they can they want your cash and i understand that ). In particular a good amount of wordpress devs claim to know seo but i find that far from the truth.Even when guided to issues some of them will often leave you disappointed. Sorry for my rant! Now to my question , obviously not many SEO's make the actual code changes themselves (how i wish i knew a one that did) are their ones out their that do? If not how do i find a good wordpress dev that can make proper seo changes and knows his stuff....example i need someone who can trouble shoot and track down some serious GWT I have and deal with some hardcore 404 & 301 issues . A lot claim to know but when push comes to shove I have been left disappointed. Thanks in advance for your help and suggestions or recommendations.
Web Design | | chrisyak0 -
So apparently SEO moz will get us de-indexed according to a SEO company!
Each and every day i get called up from an SEO company who promises to get me top spots in Google rankings if i quickly get on their special offer they have today normally i would say "no thanks and put the phone down" but i had a bit of spare time so i indulged the guy and we got talking. After the introductions and speal about his company he was showing me what his company does and how they go about it to get me top ranks (they don't get me ranks but create a website they own which then passes leads to me- kinda clever since they could then start charging me per lead or my competitors) We continued to talk and i mentioned i used SEOmoz to check my rankings and back links etc and he told me that Google are cracking down and anyone using these types of software/websites will get their websites de indexed. This struck me as BS but i wanted to get your thoughts on the matter, i personally don't believe Google would ever do such a thing as this since it would be so easy to get your competitors websites taken down (i.e. negative seo) but its certainly a talking point.
Web Design | | GarethEJones0 -
Java-script slider & H1 tags
If you have a java-script slider on the homepage, each slide has an H1 tag heading, which of the H1 tags would google most likely consider? all of them or just the first one?
Web Design | | GraphicMail0 -
Looking for an open source or wordpress designer that knows seo best practices
I have almost lost my patience in trying to find a web developer for our project. I have searched high and low from freelancers to us based firms. All I can find; freelancers that can't get the job done, but promise they can and us based firms that are currently getting away with murder charging through the nose on work that is not acceptable to say the least. US based Firms 1. Seem to give you as little work as possible to increase their margin. I get it we all need to make money. 2. Everyone knows how to do everything until you start telling them that you have a little education in the industry and will be testing their work. All of the sudden they no longer talk to you. 3. Got a few recommendations and they are all subpar performers. After asking them why their builds load so slow or have so many errors they have excuses that point to the customer Freelancers over seas. 1. I am not sure where to start with this. I have searched high and low in freelancer for someone that I can trust to build a site. Of course there is a ton of junk to look through. After countless hours of narrowing down the individuals I am thinking of giving a shot I find that they are not capable of the job. All I want is a new website from a firm that is honest and knows what they are doing. That is educated in seo best practices. That can build a quality website and actually has references of sites they built that are still up and running and test out alright. It is pretty bad when web development companies miss simple items like h tags. Really? Does anyone know of someone that knows what they are doing? That can work with someone that knows how to run a dvd player. Just disappointing to see all these web companies and freelancers that get away with murder. Who earns their keep in this industry?!?!?!?
Web Design | | forecastedinvestments0