"Design by" footerlinks of webdevelopment firms

Hi Guys,

Since our company does a lot of web development jobs next to our SEO work, we came across the topic of the “Design by” or “Webdesign by” links that our competitors are placing in the footer of clients websites. When I did some backlink analysis of our competitors these links make up the biggest part of their backlink profile. That way, I think they are important for the promotion and SEO of web development companies.

I would love to have your opinion about how to use these links for SEO

1. Side wide vs homepage

I think there are two ways here, going for a link at the bottom of every page or just one link at the bottom of the homepage. When you look at exposure the most ideal situation would be a side wide link (more eyeballs). From a SEO standpoint this might cause trouble.

2. Follow vs nofollow

I think this is a very interesting one since there seems to be a lot of different opinions about if this is advertisement or not. A normal banner in a sidebar would get the nofollow tag to match Google’s guidelines but what about this “designed by” link? I know few designers and “putting a stamp” on their work is pretty common and more likely viewed as something that they deserve then an act of commerce.

Besides this discussion adding the nofollow tag could prevent any issues with side wide links but reduces any SEO benefits to zero. Another option is adding the nofollow tag to all the links expect the one on the homepage.

3. Anchor text and descriptive text

Since anchor texts play a big role in SEO (and in detecting spam) I’m interested in your opinion about the use of anchor texts with such links. Just the company name or the web address sounds like a safe choice (especially with side wide links) but it’s pretty attempting to link words like “Webdesign” instead of the company name. Do you think it’s safe to use this, or any other keywords in 0,5,10,15,20,25% of the times?

And do you think the descriptive text “Webdesign and SEO by” got any value (or causes potential risks) when added before the link?

4. Alternatives or extra link opportunities

Here are some other options I found and thought about considering getting links from client websites.

Asking, or earning a link in their first blogpost. Yjpiieee our website is online, thanks guys of company X.
Links in the disclaimer or legal parts of the website.
Link in the main content of the about us. Most likely in the bottom a little section about the credits of the design etc.
Links on partner / friend / links pages of the website.

I saw all of these links in the backlink profiles of our competitors.

Last but not least, my current standpoint:

At this moment we ask our clients if we may place a small text and link in the footer of their website next to the copyright claim. We use texts like “Webdesign and SEO by Web Whales”. With only our brand name as anchor text (to avoid penalties). It’s a side wide follow link. Side wide because we want the exposure and follow because we want the SEO benefit. We considered just making the homepage link follow, but this kind of feels like manipulation so we just went for all follow since this is pretty normal on the web.

Beside that we celebrate new websites with our clients to increase the change getting mentioned on the first blog or partner page. Occasionally we ask them for links on these pages.

What’s your opinion about this topic?

How much value would these links actually give if they were followed? Just curious as they would be in the footer and would also lack relevancy as presumably websites would be getting designed for many many different companies in different industries.

A little bit of both. I am browsing in the Q&A this morning. But, a friend of mine also emailed me to say that this would be a good question for me to chime in on. Actually, the friend said, "This would be a good article for you to write!" not knowing that I already wrote one.

But I do have an IFTTT recipe that I use to alert me if someone asks about a penalty on Moz. It doesn't work perfectly, but I do get the occasional email prompt to come back and check out the Q&A.

I'm happy that my article was useful to you. There really isn't a black and white answer to your questions, but I think that in most cases, provided you are not doing footer links on a massive scale and not overtly trying to manipulate Google, you should be ok to have followed links there.

Hi Marie,

Your quick answer made me wonder, do you monitor this subject somehow? Or were you just lucky to see it pass by in the Q&A?

Haha, the other guys already told you, but this is great! Thank you very much for all the research you did about this topic.

Did you see any concrete penalties that a web development did get because of these links?

I have seen a few over the last 2 or so years. And I agree, there is absolutely nothing wrong with having a footer link, just don't use it as a link building tactic.

From a search engine view, wouldn’t this be a great way to determine what web development firm made what kind of websites?

No search engines are going to be bothered about that - all you want to do is use it as a link-building strategy, and you really shouldn't.

If it was legitimate, everyone would be doing it and Google wouldn't be so against them for these purposes.

However, if you want to go ahead and do this, then far be it from me to stop you

-Andy

Wow! I was going to give my opinion on this topic, but I am going to shut up and just say. Read Marie's article. You will not find more comprehensive information from a person who is more qualified on the topic of link assessment.

^ Passing this along to my web dev team to start the discussion. Great stuff as always, Marie!

Hi Andy,

I do agree about your advice to clients. The reason I bring this up is because it's totally normal in this industry (putting a stamp on your work) and for that reason I would find it logic if search engines treat these different than other side wide links.

NoFollow is very rare and only makes up a very small % of all the links on the web (a lot of web developers don’t even know what it does) so I would find it strange if those “follow” links bring down penalties.

From a search engine view, wouldn’t this be a great way to determine what web development firm made what kind of websites? If I build a great websites for a large corporation, why shouldn’t that be a quality signal? Reviews are?

Did you see any concrete penalties that a web development did get because of these links?

I wrote a really long article a while back that summarizes everything that Google has said about this type of footer link:

http://www.hiswebmarketing.com/footer-links-and-penalties/

I've also given my advice on the best way to get the benefits of your clients linking back to you without incurring a penalty.

I agree with you that this isn’t the only way you should be linkbuilding

No, it just should not even be figured into any linkbuilding. At best footer / sitewide links will do nothing (or very little) - at worst, if you are seen to gain too many, you could bring down a penalty.

Google specifically says that they don't want to see these sorts of links.

Create content, make it amazing and share it. Create interesting infographics or get creative and make people get interested.

Footer / Sitewide links isn't something I would ever advise anyone try to use as an effective tactic.

-Andy

Hi Patrick,

Great addition! Didn't think about the potential risk of spammy backlinks the client might get.

I will definitly take that in consideration. Did you see any penalties from this kind of links with clients?

1. Side wide vs homepage - Site Wide links should only be the top level categories and information pages like About Us or Contact Us

2. Follow vs nofollow - Follow = better, nofollow = still good.

3. Anchor text and descriptive text - Company Name + Web Design

4. Alternatives or extra link opportunities - Only legit and related sites!

Hi Bob

I am just speaking from the safety aspect - if you have site-wide links coming from multiple websites, however you want to handle it is upto you. I am just speaking from the experience aspect where a client had a large portion of their backlink profile were from development links.

Remember - you are inheriting potential low quality metrics from other sites if you leave links follow. If client sites have spammy metrics or backlinks themselves, you could potentially be attached to that. While it's unlikely your clients will build spammy links or black hat SEO, the possibilities are there, and I'd rather ere on the side of caution.

Just something to think about! Good luck!

Thanks for both of your opinions! Would love to hear some more about this topic.

@Patrick – Isn’t nofollow a bit of being overly protected? No offence, I’m considering it as well but since every web development company does the follow link, won’t Google just devaluate the links till let’s say 5-10% of a normal link? I don’t see any of my competitors getting penalized while there backlink profile consist of 80% “designed by” links, some of them with keyword anchor text in them as well. I’m sure your way is the most safe, but missing a change can hurt as well.

@Andy – Do you mean they hold 0% link value or just very low link value? Since with 300 clients this can be an enormous amount of backlinks and then no value vs small value makes a lot of difference. I agree with you that this isn’t the only way you should be linkbuilding, we are definitely going to do a lot of other stuff it’s just that I want this to be further proof since it will make up a big part of our backlink profile (same as with every web development company).

That way, I think they are important for the promotion and SEO of web development companies.

Hi Bob,

No, these won't do anything for SEO in terms of link-building. Google isn't interested in footer links as something they want to see, but that doesn't mean it isn't worthwhile having there. There are benefits, but they aren't SEO. If someone likes a site and wants to see who developed it, for example.

If you want to create a good backlink profile, then you need good quality links in reputable sites. And don't worry if you see these as making up the majority of links for your competitors, it just means they don't know / haven't spent any time on building good links.

-Andy

Hi Bob

We actually ran into this issue as well. Here are my thoughts:

I personally don't see the harm in having a small "developed by" logo in the footer of sites you developed. It's promotion, you did the work, and I think search engines understand that. Now, that being said, I would ask that these links are "nofollow". The reason being, nofollow links are valuable, especially since these links can send you potential customers based on the work you created. Therefore, it's a valuable link. You're not doing this for SEO, you're doing this for potential business.

If you have it in the footer, don't put it anywhere else on the website.

If you are uncomfortable with this approach, you can ask the client puts it in their promotional materials announcing their new site launch: email, blog post / news article, social media, etc. Just a quick "Our new website, designed by ______ (nofollow - onsite)...".

That way you are still getting your credit and not running the risk of site-wide, but again, if you are doing one consistent logo in the footer that is nofollowed, you should be fine.

If you go the anchor text route - only your brand should be your anchor text. No "Website Development" or anything like that. Be branded.

Hope this helps! Good luck!

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