What about that stuffed footer?
-
Whether you look at zappos.com, bol.com, or other e-commerce websites you will almost always see a footer that is full of links to categories & subcategories.
These elements aren't really attractive, and to be honest, I don't think I ever clicked on one of those links because most of the time I don't reach the bottom of such pages.
Why do these companies use these kinds of footers? Is it for SEO purpose,? Are those links passing juice? Aren't those links at the bottom of the page and therefore not that relevant as other links used in paragraphs? Aren't they contributing to too many on-page links? Maybe only use it on homepage?
I'm really looking forward to the opinions of the experts here at the forum...
-
SEO for large websites is different than SEO for small or mid-sized websites. Zappos.com has over 6 million pages indexed by Google. Having 200 footer links is very helpful for the search engines in this situation.
Go back to the days of, "every page in 3 clicks". It's still a sound policy as it makes it easier for the search engines to not only find pages, but the pages can still have enough Page Rank to be viable and not supplemental.
I picked several unusual shoes (well, at least unusual to me). For each shoe I was able to get to it's specific product page in 3 or 4 clicks. Even though some shoe brands or styles have paginated listings going 30+ deep - Zappos.com has found a way to provide a much quicker path to the product pages.
Rottentomatoes.com also has a slick footer navigation that gets to any movie within 3 clicks.
-
For those two particular websites they have so much content that the stuffed footer although not high on design attractiveness makes the site more usable for humans.
If you see a stuffed footer with a site with less than 100 pages; then it is an SEO tactic...an outdated one at that.
-
Anchor filled footers are a traditional SEO strategy usually to create links with the anchor text that the site owner is seeking to boost rankings for various site pages, although their effect is questionable now-days. They're also used for navigation purposes, but I think the key here is relevancy; if the links are relevant and add to the user experience, then thumbs up, otherwise, small links tucked away at the bottom of the page look a bit dodgy, to us and the search engines.
The links pass juice internally (or externally if they're not nofollowed) and they probably won't have as much weight as a link higher up the page used in a relevant sentence.
Try reading this article by Rand on the subject, I got some good tips from it;
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/footer-link-optimization-for-search-engines-user-experience
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
-
Unsolved How to add geo keyword without it looking keyword stuffed
I'm updating my mobile home inspection page and I want to add geo keywords with my seed keyword Mobile Home Inspections. How do I add these so that the page do not look like it keyword stuffed? Is there a technique that you use for this? I was thinking something like internal links to the City pages of have but then the Anchor text landing page would be a cite page and not a mobile home inspection page.
On-Page Optimization | | Vallerinspects1 -
Linking back to the homepage im trying to rank - Using exact match anchor? Linking from footer?
Hello, Our site is an basically advertisements / listings website. Structure is as following <last 200="" adds=""> (homepage trying to rank) < category 1 > < category 1 > < category 1 > < category 1 > < category 1 ></last> My question - each of the categories links back within the menu back to homepage. The link text currently is last 200 adds. Can i use exact match anchor? Or should i use just last 200 ads? The issue is that one of my categorys (category 1) has already the exact match anchor im trying to rank for. So i can not use the same to link back to homepage. Im worried that google does not see any exact keyword anchor texts back to homepage hence will rank my homepage with lower strenght for that keyword . Im also worried that the category 1 page might now compete with the main homepage for this word (even tho at the moment category itself does not rank for this keyword) Can i link from footer back to homepage with an alternative keyword then to give some "context" to google more? Would this be spamming?
On-Page Optimization | | advertisingcloud0 -
Keyword Stuffing - Image Alt
One of our category pages is keyword stuffed. But we are not able to change the image alt text. It is automatically generated as the title of each product. We would be able to get the keywords down if that was not the case, but now there is 30 alt image keywords along with 25 other elements of the keyword. I can only change 2 image alt texts. What can I do here?
On-Page Optimization | | Mike.Bean0 -
Keyword Stuffing Issues
Hi Folks, At this URL https://purplegriffon.com/courses/project-management/prince2 as an example, you can see that I am outputting all course dates in a table. Each table row contains information regarding the specific course such as start date, duration, location but also course title. In the course title it will obviously contain the keyword, in this example that is 'prince2'. So my question is this. As the MOZ on-page grader indicates that I am keyword stuffing (even though I receive an A grade) will Google be clever enough to know that I am displaying a table of events for PRINCE2? Or will it class the page as containing too many keywords? Each event links to a specific event page for that event, so is unique. I am interested in hearing the thoughts of the community on this. Thanks. Regards Gareth
On-Page Optimization | | PurpleGriffon0 -
Keyword stuffing when brand includes keyword
Hi If you have managed to combine brand name with primary target keyword do you still need pay attention to on page keyword stuffing ? since one would expect plenty of brand references in the body copy ? Or is it still best to reduce instances of the keyword aspect ? For example if site is called 'Franks Service Centres' and you have lots/too many instances of 'service centres' in the body copy a/c to MA on-page grader, should you reduce some instances of the kw ? All Best
On-Page Optimization | | Dan-Lawrence
Dan0 -
? Keyword stuffing
I have a new website. Did "on page grading". Although the page received a grade of A the only area that did not receive a check mark was key word stuffing. It recommended I not use keyword more that 15 times but I only counted 11 uses of the key phrase "breast augmentation." However the phrase is also used in alt tag of images which would take me over 15. Are alt tag on images counted and is this a concern? I tried to use "augmentation mammaplasty" to reduce the use of the phrase "breast augmentation" but will use of "augmentation" and "breast" alone also cause the count to increase for the phrase "breast augmentation"
On-Page Optimization | | wianno1680 -
Thoughts on these footer links
I have a site that has about 20 footer links. A main Category and 4-5 links under each. The site is very large, so I feel they do have some value for navigation, and they don't blend in with the background at all. I know penguin was cracking down on footer links, but I don't feel theses are "spammy" links. Will it hurt long-term to leave these links, or should we pull them?
On-Page Optimization | | netviper0 -
H1 tag in the footer?
Quick question: I have been scouring SEOMoz.org along with webmaster forums looking for an answer, but we have a person who insists that the H1 tag be located in the Footer. I feel that is is fundamentally wrong because it is not the intent of the H1 tag, and I do not believe it is a best practice. That being said would we see what little value the H1 tag has disappear if we put it in the footer, would we be penalized, or am I being too vanilla by wanting to keep it in the Title position?
On-Page Optimization | | travelclickseo0