Are creative widgets still a good strategy in the Penguin world?

[DotCar]

Im planning on building a small utility widget that my site will distribute to related sites.  I plan on implementing this with JS and including a small anchor link back to my site.

In the new penguin world, will the possibly be destructive to my SEO efforts? Any do's or don'ts when developing a widget/badge for distribution to lets say a dozen sites?

[DotCar]

To be a tad more specific I have a site that is a simple calculator utility that allows visitors to look up tire variations that are close to their current tire size.  The site was created in 2007 and has some back-links including some references in wikipedia.

My goal is to build a simple calculator that encompasses the core tools into a widget that other "car" sites can use at their sites.  My hopeful out come is to build 5-15 new inbound links from sites that will use the calculator on their sites.

[NakulGoyal]

Great responses from Eppie and Anthony. The only thing that I'd like to add (or repeat) is that look at the link profile and the history/age of the site you are getting these links for. If it's a very brand new kind of site (in terms of backlinks), launch the widget still, but promote it slowly and steadily and also continue to work on other kinds of links and lots and lots of great content on the site if possible...as in grow the site from both On-page as well as Off-page at the same time so that there is some sort of a co-relation to new content / new links.

I hope this helps.

[EppieVojt]

Yes, you could you damage your SEO efforts with a poorly implemented widget campaign.  Done correctly, it could provide a huge boost to your rankings.  If I were you, I would:

• Avoid overusing an important anchor text term if you're taking a simple approach to the widget -- you're better off with a URL link than an exact match term if the widget will have broad distribution.
• Create a feature within the widget that limits the number of pages on the site the anchor text is displayed on (only the homepage of a site, perhaps) so that you don't end up with a profile full of only sitewides.
• Configure the widget to vary anchor text based on the page it's embedded on. You can grab the URL of the page (or the time of access if you prefer) and use that to seed a random number that correlates to anchor text variants.  You could also potentially alter the page that's being linked to, which would keep it more natural.  Just cache that data so that the specific page gets the same anchor text and destination repeatedly.
• You could extend the last idea for greater flexibility by having the widget make a call to your server to get the anchor text to use.  Have it cache it for a defined period of time, so that you can later adjust your anchor text distribution if needed.
• Potentially have the widget vary its own footprint (insert random class and id names that aren't used, add extra markup like superfluous divs, change the position of your link slightly, etc) -- this would increase the likelihood that each instance of the link would be considered unique.

With any of these options, you should be clear about what the widget links to / how it links so that you don't end up with upset users.  I'd also recommend providing an easy option for people to disable the link if they don't want it there.

Hope that helps.

eppie

[anthonydnelson]

Is this a sidebar (sitewide) widget or a single page/post style widget?

Here are a few of my thoughts:

The sitewide style widget would be safest for a site with an established natural backlink profile already built up. If the site is relatively new, consider adjusting the widget (making it bigger?) so it is something that is featured on a single page instead of every page.

If it is sitewide, make sure your anchor text is simply the company or website name. If it is single page, consider using anchor text that reads natural.