External links in a global footer
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My company runs a real estate site (http://yochicago.com) that features editorial blog and video content. In our footer, we feature links to some of our client sites. That footer is global, i.e., on every page of the site, of which there are thousands.
One of our clients has been hit by Google for unnatural links. While I am very aware of them using a network of junk sites (http://www.seomoz.org/q/can-our-white-hat-links-get-a-bad-rap-when-they-re-alongside-junk-links-busted-by-panda), could we be contributing to the problem?
Our site has the most links into the troubled site.
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I agree with EGOL. That is a lot of external links to include sitewide. The presence of the word 'Sponsors' may also make it look like they are paid links.
Consider simply creating one 'Sponsors' page on your site, and including a nice link to that page in your footer.
It's hard to decide if you are contributing to their problem. I'd definitely advise them to discontinue their use of the junk network and remove as many of those links as possible.
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Just saying what I think and what I would do.....
There are a lot of links in that footer. If that was my site I would remove them to protect my own rankings as well as those of my clients.
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