Web Designers and SEOs using backlinks from client sites
-
What are your thoughts on SEOs and web designers putting their own links in the footers of client sites.
For the sake of argument, lets assume that the client is happy for the link to be there. I'm referring to the SEO merits of the link being there from an 'irrelevant' website.
My belief is that this goes against what Google is looking for and that these are irrelevant links and likely to be picked up and penalised. That's what I believe!
However, I see lots of sites offering SEO services that have dofollow links from their client sites, using exact match anchor text and they are all ranking highly.
Is it just a matter of time before Google sniffs them out and penalises them for it? Or should I be going through my client sites and adding myself a dofollow link in the footer? (with their permission of course).
The highest ranking sites in any UK city do this. If you search SEO Manchester, SEO Leeds etc and find the top ranking sites and check them out on opensite explorer, they are all using a disproportionate amount of dofollow backlinks form client sites.
-
Excellent point on the anchor text. I reviewed a number of high ranking sites with DA of 95+ that use these links in the footer and they only use the site name in the anchor text.
Best,
Christopher -
I don't think there's no reason to nofollow this branded link - you built their site, they chose you and have kept that link on there - that's a pretty good signal that they are endorsing your work. If they want it removed, by all means they'll remove it, or ask you to remove it, or replace you with someone else and remove it. So I'd leave it as followed - but definitely go with branded.
You may also want to consider creating a page of clients you've worked with in the past/portfolio type page, and then link to that page instead of the homepage. If you get hit, you can always kill that page and start another internal portfolio page. With the homepage, that's much harder to do.
-
Thanks Mark - Would you be happy with a dofollow branded link, or err on the side of caution with a nofollow link?
-
I'd be very hesitant to add target anchor text in these links - I've seen sites that had built links like Web Design and SEO services by Company X - web design points to the webdev page, seo points to the seo page on the company website. These sites got rocked by Penguin - footer site wide links with keyword rick anchor text pointing to target pages leads to heavily overoptimized backlink profiles that are awesome penguin food. Don't do it! Just use a branded link or a naked anchor link (www.companyx.com) as the link back, otherwise you're just asking for trouble.
-
I agree I like to see them there, but I'm wondering how Google would view these links given the irrelevance of them on the actual site?
-
What are your thoughts on SEOs and web designers putting their own links in the footers of client sites.
When considering actual number of links, this practice is perhaps even more common in online software suites (e.g. phpBB) and online services (e.g. Volusion eCommerce), neither of which use nofollow. Regarding user experience, I'm fine with these links if they are in the footer because there are times when I really do want to know how a particular site was built. In other words, that's what good links are for--taking the user where they want to go.
Best,
Christopher
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
-
Web 2.0 Backlinks
Hi Normal Web 2.0 websites like Wordpress.com, blogger.com have very High DA and PA. But when we create a subdomain, DA and PA falls to 1 as Google treats subdomain as new websites. Does it make any sense then to get backlinks from web 2.0 websites? will it help in Google rankings?
Link Building | | aliasgarbabat1234567890 -
Seo Site Structure
I manage a shoe shop, and the site structre for a shoe category is: www.example.com/casual-shoes/ and for a product is: www.example.com/product/320/casual-shoes/ Would be better for SEO and for my casual shoes category, to rewrite the product page to: www.example.com/casual-shoes/product-320/ Thank you! Regards
Link Building | | raul_hutu0 -
Backlinks that redirect to your site
Hi all, I just wanted to ask you all about backlinks that redirect to your site. I recently used Link Detox Tools to carry out a link analysis. However, some of our backlinks are redirecting to our homepage. Is this ok? Why is this happening? Thanks guys!!!
Link Building | | AAttias0 -
Backlinks to site.com (without www)
I have a website with 301 redirection from site.com to www.site.com. And we have built many backlinks to site.com (without www). Are these backlinks still give us juicy?
Link Building | | bele0 -
Are link exchanges bad for SEO these days? Also, is adding my site to free yet relevent directory sites a bad idea?
I operate a computer services company in Eugene, Oregon called "Eugene Computer Geeks". We do a lot of web design, and need incoming links to my site very badly. Lately I've been asking clients if they would link to me, but they almost always ask for a link in return. If we exchange links, does Google penalize my site? Would the incoming link be better for SEO if I'm not linking back to the other site? ALSO Is it possible that manually submitting my site to free, yet relevant web directories would hurt my rankings? It's not a big deal to me if it doesn't help my rankings, as I see a benefit to having my site listed, but wanted to make sure there wasn't a chance that it would hurt my rankings. As far as I know all the directories are free from SPAM, porn, warez, or anything like that. Thanks!
Link Building | | eugenecomputergeeks0 -
Backlinking
I WANT TO START BACKLINKING MY WEBSITE, WWW.CHARLIEFLETCHER.CO.UK . ive signed up for a 30day trail, what is the best way to get started. Charlie
Link Building | | charliefletcher0 -
Is it a bad idea to build unique sites to build credibility for your main site?
It is hard to sum up the question in one line, but basically my company has bought several descriptive domains that we would like to build out into microsites that link back to our main site. For example...say we are a florist. Our main site talks about all the different kinds of flowers we have and the work we do. So the idea is to buy weddingflowersdallas.com (example only...) and have a mini site that has the same look and feel as our main site, but has unique content that talks solely about our wedding flower business and has a few links back to our main site. 1. Is this a no no from a google perspective? 2. Is this a good strategy in general? Thanks, David
Link Building | | ciinc1