Optimized site-wide internal links in footer - a problem?
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Hello all - I am looking at a website with 8 heavily keyword optimized site-wide links in the footer. Yes, there are only 8 but it looks a bit spammy and I'm tempted to remove them. I imagine there's some possibility of a Google penalty too? What would your advice be? Thanks, Luke
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Thanks Michael - you're dead right in your approach there - amazed how many have got it so wrong by writing for Googlebot and not the actual site users. Found this interesting re: internal links - plenty of discussion on the issue but definitely a lack of clarity: http://www.seroundtable.com/google-internal-links-anchor-text-16864.html
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If they are internal links you can have and do what you like. However the key is user experience. Have you taken a look at you analytics to see how popular the links are and the visitor behaviour with them? At a guess, if they look keyword engineered they can be off-putting.
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