How And/Or If To Prune Footer Links
-
Hi,
I have a site with a site-wide footer that currently has 28 internal links.The footer terms are the terms the pages are focused on.
This footer is on every page of the site (hundreds of pages). Some pages of my site have 10 or so additional links pointing to internal and external pages (besides the footer) and some pages (like the homepage) have about 50 links besides the footer.
I'm going for a half dozen new terms with new pages that I would be adding to the site-wide footer.
Do you think I should trim the existing footer before adding these new terms? I guess I would remove the terms that show no real hope of ever getting to page one... like pages stuck in the 40s. Or, pages I for whatever reason don't care much if they rank or not.
Would trimming it to a smaller number do more to help the remaining linked pages/terms?
What do you think? Thanks!
-
Thanks, Ryan!
-
Do you think buttons higher up the page would be more valuable than footer links?
Yes. I should clarify and state that is my personal belief. The only official confirmation I am aware of is a single statement from Matt Cutts where he states "Google reserves the right to treat footer links differently from other links". Extrapolating from that statement and using logic, it seems the more visible a link is, the more weight would be applied to it.
-
Thanks, Ryan and duly noted about links in context. Do you think buttons higher up the page would be more valuable than footer links?
-
Would trimming it to a smaller number do more to help the remaining linked pages/terms?
In that case, short answer: Yes**.**
The fewer the number of links you have on a page, the more juice will flow to those pages. You should also be aware that footer links are thought to be less valuable then links in content.
-
Thanks, but I wasn't asking about U/X.
-
When reviewing the links on your pages, there is one primary focus: what links are valuable to users. The only other thought I consider is legalities such as a requirement to provide a Privacy Policy link on the home page.
I would recommend performing analysis to determine which links are being used by your visitors. If a link isn't being used, remove it. Links affect how your page rank flows throughout your site. For optimal SEO you want to direct your link juice to valued pages.
Consider also most used don't ever see or use footer links. In my experience 28 footer links would be far too many for most sites. Every site is different and perhaps you might have a legitimate need for that many, but that is usually not the case.
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
-
Is it helpful for seo to have helpful links at the footer?
HI, suppose my homepage has good content but no external links to other sites for more info. and no helpful internal links in the footer to learn more. and my competition has 9 internal links in the footer which links to other pages on the site who has more SEO boost? I know the answer , does it really makes a difference or its minute?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | SIMON-CULL1 -
HTTPs to HTTP Links
Hi Mozers, I have a question about the news that Google Chrome will start blocking mixed content starting in December 2019. That starting in December 2019, users that are presented insecure content will be presented a toggle allowing those Chrome users to unblock the insure resources that Chrome is blocking. And in January 2020, Google will remove that toggle option an will just start blocking mixed content or insecure web pages. Not sure what this means. What are the implications of this for a HTTPS page that has an HTTP link? Thanks, Yael
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | yaelslater0 -
Link Building for Ecommerce
I need help - I'm trying to boost the rankings of a competitive category page - Leather Office Chairs First I'm thinking I need earned links - but for something like leather office chairs thinking of interesting, unique content people would love to read & share is proving difficult. I am struggling - can anyone help?!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | BeckyKey1 -
How many back links a day?
I am the owner of a very small business who can not afford a decent SEO company. So I am doing my SEO myself. I am producing good amount of content. But at the same time I am way behind my competition in back linking. Can you please let me know as a rule of thumb, how many external do-follow links a day I should make to be on the safe side? Thanks all
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | AlirezaHamidian0 -
Internal links to blog posts
I am linking manually to blog posts in my site from my Home page. Our site isn't set up with an auto "Recent Posts" that shows on Home. Should I use the exact blog post title as the anchor text or do I need to create something that is not an exact match to the title of the post?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | gfiedel0 -
Automotive part / OEM / Manufacturer numbers
Hi All, What's the best way to optimise pages for OE / Manufacturer Part numbers? Disclaimer: All part numbers in this post are fictional. I dont want this post out ranking my client for real part numbers 🙂 Take this for Throttle Body for example: WOODYS S-AB-Q.123.53G This is the main part number from WOODYS (the manufacturer). However, these are all variations of exactly the same product: Woodys 2.78972.11.0 Woodys 2.78972.16.0 Woodys 2.78972.20.0 Woodys 2.78972.26.0 Oh, and car brands use OE numbers for these parts, such as: VWA 9808e40923G VWA 9808e40923L VWA 9808e40923M VWA 9808e40923P VWA 9808e40923Q These internal part numbers are vitally important as most of my clients customers are garages/mechanics so they're very likely to search on OE numbers. So, would you suggest: Optimising 10 different pages for the same product (using the part numbers in the URL, Title and H1). The problem is there's no unique content for these pages, only the part number varies, so this would likely get penalised for dupe content, or not enough unique content. Optimising one page for all terms. If so, how do you suggest doing this to ensure all part/OE numbers rank well and part numbers are prominent in the SERPS?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | seowoody
Could Schema.org help here by marking up these EO numbers with the isSimilarTo property of the Product type? I'm trying to ensure these part number get equal presence in the SERP snippet when searched for, even though I can't physically include all these numbers in the Title tag, URL and H1 of one page. 3. Something else? Thanks, Woody 🙂1 -
Footer sitewide links
Here's a question - does having a "website designed by" reference in the footer of every page of one of your clients help or hurt? I have a major university .edu that I designed a site for one of their departments and it is just about to launch and they've allowed me to put a reference in the footer. I've had pretty good luck with this on my other clients' sites, but didn't know if this practice is seen as spammy. Thanks
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Chas-2957210 -
WWW vs Non-WWW/Moving a site to a new CMS/Redirect all of the previous URLs
We are working on a new design for a website, which is currently on a CMS that has non-seo-friendly URLs. There is no redirection of 'www' to non-www or vice versa, or handling of homepage redirection so there is only one instance of 'home'. To move the site in the future, all of these URLs will have to be redirected to their new, and I hope, seo-friendly counterparts. Is it prudent now to redirect the four home page links so there is only one? and to redirect all non-www to 'www' so there is only one instance of each page? Or should I leave it and redirect all of them when the time comes?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | haan_seo0