Footer Links for Design Shops - Do They Help or Hurt?
-
I work on SEO for a number of clients at our agency, including our in-house SEO for our own website. I use Open Site Explorer all the time to analyze my competition in the SERPs and try to gain links from this insight. However, I've noticed a number of agencies and design shops that place a link in the footer of websites they've designed and created. For example "Site design by ABC Agency (hyperlinked to the agency's home page). Or I've seen small logos or graphics that link to the designer's site and use the "alt tag" to get stronger anchor text. From a design perspective, I don't care for this, but as a SEO...I can see why.
We've designed a number of websites and have more in the pipeline, but have not used this tactic before. It seems like an irrelevant link from a content/user standpoint, however, it seems to work for a lot of agencies and design shops. Any input from the SEOmoz community would be great. Is it a short-lived strategy? Does it help or hurt your link-building and "rapport" with Google, Bing, Yahoo?
Thanks everyone.
-
author meta - no
footer link - yes
-
Now conversly to this. If you were auditing a client's website would you reccomend removal of an Author Meta Tag and Footer link...
-
EGOL - we could pretty much bet our lives on you being correct. A large corporate site would be crazy to hire freelancers ($$$). They surely have a staff of W2 employees or, at the very least, an outsource consisting of staff employees. Successful corporations are into "team spirit" motivationals and like direct contact and control of people collaborating on their public image.
-
I had an epphany on footer links. Since I specialize in business broker sites it dawned on me Ithere is a relevancy issue - business broker to web design is a mismatch.
What I did was create a couple of "business broker specialty" pages, then worded the anchor text accordingly. The pages quickly attained individual rank and I started getting more response forms.
In addition to creating relevancy I also let them know I know about their business. I generally do SEO as part of a site rebuild.
-
Cool, thanks again winlynxtp.
-
One last note here, you are speaking about publicly traded companies with Nike, Best Buy, etc... These companies have a dedicated staff that work on the site all the time. They are not going to put on the front page of their site, last updated by Robert Smith. I also agree about the fee, I usually deduct it from the cost of the site design similar to how construction companies give you a discount for putting a sign in your yard. You can also use the Author meta tag.
-
You don't see those footer links on sites for Nike, Medtronic, Best Buy, etc.
I agree. I think that some of these companies have in-house talent or they address the "signature links" before the design contract is awarded.
In my opinion, the designer is still a "winner" if he/she can post... "I designed Nike or BestBuy" in their personal portfolio.
When you think of the value that such a link would have (as on Nike), the designer should be willing to do the work for free and pay a monthly fee for the link to be displayed. (just taking the opposite perspective).
-
The "tagline" as you put it is not really a tagline but we will use it. It may not be seen by users but Google will see it.
-
Design is design, I guess you feel your work is not as important as an artist, not my problem. Someone doesn't want my links they don't get it but usually after design they want to brag of my work to their friends. But us younger folks use the internet for our reputation not the newpaper.
-
Great point. And that's why I reached out to the community on this one. Because we're an agency, we can frequently update our work portfolio on our website and blog, which if I'm doing my job, organic traffic from targeted keywords will bring visitors that might convert into new clients. Thanks for the reply and great recommendation!
-
Thanks EGOL. It's obvious as a way to build a lot of links quickly if a company is designing/programming a lot of websites. Also, and this is speculation, but it seems like a lot of design firms are not asking client permission for a link, and subtly add it to the bottom as if it's a standard. Nonetheless, we're a hybrid agency that does design and programming, as well as SEO, so it's warranted I suppose to "mark" our work, but at the same time it still seems like it can "cheapen" a website. You don't see those footer links on sites for Nike, Medtronic, Best Buy, etc.
Thanks again for the insight. Always curious to hear what other SEOmoz'rs think about this stuff. There's a lot of website design/dev in our future so I wanted to check with the community. Cheers!
-
If your design company site is ranking well you can get more value from good strong testimonials on your site than a signature line on site your customers may never find. Take the example that you do a fantastic job on a site to promote kid's books. Someone looking for a good designer for their speed boat site is more likely to read a testimonial on your site than see your tagline on the book site. You gain value by human viewers being able to read what others are saying about your work on a diverse range of sites.
If I am hiring a designer, I do not want one that has worked on a competitor's website so I would search google for designers not look at design by tag lines on competitor's sites.
It comes down to whether you want your two minutes of fame on every site you do or a valuable marketing resource such as testimonials.
-
Thanks for the feedback. It's definitely a fast way to build a lot of links if web design and/or programming is a company's capability. Just wanted to be sure these links weren't going to hurt my SEO. Cheers.
-
I can understand why some designers want to have a "signature" on their work. It is somewhat of a custom for an artist to sign his/her work and that custom seems to creep into web design. A lot of designers are really adamant about that link and do not want to give it up even if the website owner is willing to pay extra. In my opinion this is something that the designer and the client should agree upon before work begins.
I have a very different reaction when I see an SEO company link in the footer of a client site. I know exactly why they want that link.
Why should I hire an SEO who does that? Any SEO who is proud of his work should not be sucking the linkjuice out of his client's websites. He is being paid to do the opposite and do that job in a stealthy manner.
-
It is a backlink so yes, it is helpful, in the footer in my opinion very helpful. Then It started off as being helpful to add html links to the bottom of the page so when listed with Google, Google would include the pages in the search results, now called Sitelinks. This has evolved and if you use a CMS like Joomla or Wordpress can easily be distinguished without them. It is appropriate to allow the company working on your site to include designed by.... I will use it to boost the keyword I want. For example say I want to rank higher for Indianapolis Website Design over the next 3 months, I will start including it and link to the site design page of my site.
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
-
Looking for a new Web Developer and Graphic Designer - Where to look? Job Description in Post
Hi All, I know I can go to Guru.com, etc. but is there a place here that I can look for a web dev that can help with my tasks? I have a good bit of work to offer them and my current web dev who has been a great asset has suffered from health problems and it has affected his output, so I'm sad to say I need to look for someone that can help me get caught back up. If anyone has any suggestions on someone that is a knowledgeable web developer that has access to their own graphic designer (or can do graphic design themselves as well) please let me know. I am not opposed at all to hire a separate graphic designer to send work over to the web developer. SOMEONE WITH SEO EXPERIENCE WOULD BE VERY HELPFUL AS WELL AS MY CURRENT WEB DEVELOPER HAD IT AS WELL. The current projects going on are: Changing the header graphics on the home page to meet compliance. Constantly adding and editing my websites with small tweaks almost daily. Creating PDF's with content we give and uploading them as well as images to the sites. Keeping in mind that editing the site can affect responsiveness and we have to make sure our logo is a certain size compared to other metrics, etc. Creating web banners, tile ads, etc. Creating facebook main photo for biz page. I will be happy to share any info via PM or if anyone can point me in the right direction in finding someone that would be awesome! Thanks!
Web Design | | Veebs1 -
Using Button Links vs Sidebar Menu
I have a services page with a lot of rich text and a slideshow of images. Currently, I am using a column of buttons to various services, and am wondering if a sidebar menu would be more effective for Google to crawl and rank?
Web Design | | cinchmedia0 -
Domain Consolidation & Proper Linking Strategy?
We have a client that operates 5 gyms in 5 different part of Miami, and each gym has its own website. All sites rank well and have a a good pagerank. For the purpose of their marketing and brand they would like 1 website developed which includes all of their gyms which we are launching later today. Each gym will have it's own landing page within the website Should we redirect the URL's of the different websites to the individual landing pages on the new site or how should that work to minimize any penalties on our SEO. For example (these are fake url's): www.gymA.com, www.gymB.com, www.gymC.com, www.gymD.com The new url: www.gym.com New landing pages:
Web Design | | POPCreative
www.gym.com/gymA, www.gym.com/gymB, www.gym.com/gymC, www.gym.com/gymD Should we do a redirect from: www.gymA.com to www.gym.com/gymA www.gymB.com to www.gym.com/gymB www.gymC.com to www.gym.com/gymC www.gymD.com to www.gym.com/gymD Thank you in advanced. If there is a better way to do this, or anything extra I need to know, that would be great. Thanks!0 -
What are the top web design agencies?
I have a big client who is looking to have some design work done on their websites. Really just redoing them essentially. They were asking me who the top web design companies in the country are. Anyone have any suggestions? Who are the most renown agencies?
Web Design | | DanDeceuster0 -
Wordpress template design
Hi everyone, I know its not really an SEO question, but I'd thought i'd ask here to see if anyone can help. Does anyone know any awesome wordpress template designers? I've been looking for a while, but i've not been able to find anyone awesome. I know it's going to cost, to get someone good.
Web Design | | PeterM220 -
What do web designers consider to be SEO
I'm putting together an article about Web Designers and SEO. The basic crux is that most designers will at most (if you are lucky) add in title tags, maybe pretty URL's and HTML links and call it SEO friendly. (lot's who don't probably but also lot's who are even worse) Of course I want it to be a bit controversial so please feel free to let rip. My argument is clients who have previously had site's that have had "SEO on them", know think that all SEO is a waste of time as their previous experience didn't produce the traffic and sales they were expecting. I don't know many designers who independently consider a site marketing strategy and how a site is going to generate links in the long term. I'm sure most of us have read this post on SEO responsiblities but becasue the first port of call for most business owners are the web designers, our offering is undermined by their misunderstandings and in some cases mis-sellings. So under the working title, "Why Web Designers Are Bad For SEO", any care to share some imput.
Web Design | | FDC1 -
Too Many On-Page Links for my Blog
Hi, I have created a SEO Moz campaign for my travel blog www.EspaceVoyage.net. The Crawl diagnostics tool raised a warning saying that for few pages I have a 'Too many on-page links'. All the problematic pages are of the following style: http://www.espacevoyage.net/2008/08/01/ http://www.espacevoyage.net/2008/08/02/ http://www.espacevoyage.net/2008/08/06/ .... I am not sure what I should do with that ... Since I continue to publish articles on that blog I imagine that that problem will keep growing and growing ... What should I do with that? Thanks P.S. That blog uses Wordpress CMS. Nancy
Web Design | | EnigmaSolution0 -
Meta author. Is it relevant for website design company in its seo?
We don't usually add the meta author in the websites that we develop. I wonder if it would have any positive effect in our seo. We usually add a link in the footer like this "Diseño Web Vigo "(Website Development in Vigo). I am worry about this links. I'm not sure if they are positive because they are in the footer and so the link appears in all of the pages. Besides all these websites we develop are hosted in two different servers, and google could easily think that it is manipulative thing. What do you think? Thanks!!! 🙂
Web Design | | teconsite.com0