Confused on footer links (Which are best practices for footer links on other websites?)

[CommercePundit]

Hello folks,

We are eCommerce web design and Development Company and we give do follow links of our website to every projects which we have done with specific keywords. So now the concern is we are seeing huge amount of back-links are being generated from single root domain for particular keyword in webmaster tools.

So what should be the best way to practice this? Should we give no follow attribute to it or can use our company logo with link?

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[CommercePundit]

Thanks guys..we are going to implement on our website..

[zeepartner]

Well to be completely on the safe side sure. But having a portfolio site is so extremely legitimate, transparent and common that I see no reason for worries. However, I can only speak for myself who is wearing a completely white hat and therefore sleeping sound at night;)

[rikano]

Yes Philipp B, but even with the portfolio onsite, i still recommend nofollowing those links to stick to google guidelines and play in the green area !

[zeepartner]

rikano's got a point there. This is why I suggest creating a portfolio or "our customers" page to place this links. There you fully disclose why links are there and you don't need to nofollow them. Links like these in the footer are bad for SEO and useless for users visiting the site.

[rikano]

Hello,

The best practice with these links is nofollowing them, unless you want to get hit by penguin or unnatural links penalty. Actually, footer links have no more value for SEO (or just litle value) and abusing them makes a clear pattern that will surely get you penalized.

I have dealt with several Google links penalties, and have recovered 80% of my clients. One thing i'm 100% sure of is: site-wide footer links when placed in multiple websites/domains will hit you soon or later. I know it's not that easy to convince you, but ask your self these questions, and u'll will surely nofollow those links:

1. Do those links add value to the page where they are placed ? (NO)

2. Would you click on a footer link, or give it trust ? (A very few people would)

3. Is that link editorial (the webmaster has placed it and he's happy to present it to his visitors to provide  them with usefull resource) ? (No)

Just add rel=nofollow to that link, and start building some genuine links (guest posts, shares, broken links method) to get your site rank higher and earn more customers !

Hope it helps,regards

[zeepartner]

I think without nofollow is okay since linking to your clients and projects is legitimate and as long as you are transparent about why you link to them (because it's your portfolio).

[Jonathan_Hatton]

It depends if you are looking to increase the overall authority of your website. If you are happy with the level at the moment, then yes put 'nofollow' attribute on. I would not say there was a big risk in having it 'followed' as it is an image and not keyword rich anchor text. I would also give the logo, img title/alts that are branded rather than keyword.

E.g.

commercepundit

Hope this helps

[CommercePundit]

Thanks for your reply..

what do you suggest? company logo and name with "nofollow" attribute or without "nofollow" attribute?

[CommercePundit]

Thanks Jonathan,

for your quick response and clearing our doubt. but still there is one query do we give our company logo without "nofollow" attribute? will it be advisable?

[DennisSeymour]

i vote for using an image in that situtation

For a good example for footer area links, look at Zappos and how they do theirs.

[zeepartner]

I would not put this in the footer, and definitely not with optimized anchor text. This will raise a red flag for google and does not add additional value to either you or your clients. If you do want to link to projects (which i think makes sense) it's better to have a portfolio page with these links. And as Jonathan suggested, use brand names or logo images to link to these projects.

[Jonathan_Hatton]

Personally I would go with image or brand name anchor text. I read an article a while back about a UK Web company getting a manual spam penalty for having 'web design location' on all the websites they had developed. They change the anchor text to brand and filed for reconsideration and the penalty was lifted.