Footer links still work pretty damn well

10 years ago

I'd be looking at the whole picture. Google has long stated that sitewide links that are purely promotional are their target. Look at GoDaddy with the whole SSL certificate fiasco.

I'd much prefer to take a homepage footer link, over a sitewide link. I think Google has the power now to say, "This site is just getting sitewide footer links left, right and centre". Just because you built & designed a website for example, doesn't give you the right to link out.

In the same sense that Freelancer dropped a nofollow link on Warriorforum - the important part being nofollow.

Sure, footer links work as do any other links. But I'd be more inclined to mix it up. Homepage links, sidebar links, in-content links etc, rather than relying solely on footers.

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nik0

Banned 10 years ago

Originally Posted by Icematikx

I'd be looking at the whole picture. Google has long stated that sitewide links that are purely promotional are their target. Look at GoDaddy with the whole SSL certificate fiasco.

I'd much prefer to take a homepage footer link, over a sitewide link. I think Google has the power now to say, "This site is just getting sitewide footer links left, right and centre". Just because you built & designed a website for example, doesn't give you the right to link out.

In the same sense that Freelancer dropped a nofollow link on Warriorforum - the important part being nofollow.

Sure, footer links work as do any other links. But I'd be more inclined to mix it up. Homepage links, sidebar links, in-content links etc, rather than relying solely on footers.

Well these links have been live for quite some time now. Let's see what happens after the Penguin 3.0 refresh. Can also be that the site has way to few links, eg from only 10 domains so that might not cause any triggers.

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paulgl 10 years ago

Originally Posted by Icematikx

I'd be looking at the whole picture.

Google, or one of the main "spokesmen," John Mueller, keeps telling
webmasters to actually do just that. Your site does not live or die on
one algorithm. There are literally 200+. Your site does not exist in
a vacuum of one lone algorithm. Seldom does a site rise or fall
due to one of them. There are direct and indirect things going on
that affect a site. Focusing on the whole site is what google would
rather people be doing and looking at. It creates too much hysteria
by crowing about one thing, when it's probably many. Too many
people jump on the same single bandwagon, and see zip. Then they
talk nonsense. Insane because that one algorithm that someone
giggled about was just a small or insignificant part, and does not
cross over to someone elses site.

Paul
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SlfMastery

10 years ago

The "Rockstars" just did a webinar and the guess speaker DID mention to put a menu navigation at the bottom on your page with the keywords being the anchor text (they would then link to other pages on the site).

Whether it provides more SEO power I can't say. Not sure why it would, but, it WAS mentioned by that guy (not sure what his name was).

Hmmmmmm...glad it boosts your rankings, though

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mmarty

10 years ago

I never personally believed the hype of footer / sitewide links being dead - I simply believe that you can overuse these types of links. The key to success is a diversified link profile. You really don't want your link profile being maid up of solely these types of links, you need a great balance of everything - after all, this is exactly what looks natural.

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nik0

Banned 10 years ago

Originally Posted by mmarty

I never personally believed the hype of footer / sitewide links being dead - I simply believe that you can't overuse these types of links. The key to success is a diversified link profile. You really don't want your link profile being maid up of solely these types of links, you need a great balance of everything - after all, this is exactly what looks natural.

Well the thing is, I tried a batch of sidebar links on a batch of 10 different money sites (10 blogroll links with URL anchor) and I could hardly see any results, if at all. Only one site gained rankings but that could also be for other reasons so that surprised me a bit.

These footer links were placed on money sites btw, linking out to another money site, reason I mention is cause the money sites are of higher quality (in terms of content and rankings) then the PBN sites where I placed the sidebar links. No idea if this can have anything to do with it, though a link from a ranking site should be better then from a non ranking (perhaps Pandalized) site but a bit hard to figure out. Maybe I should run some additional split tests linking out to the same sites where the footer links hardly progressed. Anyway plenty of split testing to do.

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mmarty

10 years ago

Originally Posted by nik0

Well the thing is, I tried a batch of sidebar links on a batch of 10 different money sites (10 blogroll links with URL anchor) and I could hardly see any results, if at all. Only one site gained rankings but that could also be for other reasons so that surprised me a bit.

These footer links were placed on money sites btw, linking out to another money site, reason I mention is cause the money sites are of higher quality (in terms of content and rankings) then the PBN sites where I placed the sidebar links. No idea if this can have anything to do with it, though a link from a ranking site should be better then from a non ranking (perhaps Pandalized) site but a bit hard to figure out. Maybe I should run some additional split tests linking out to the same sites where the footer links hardly progressed. Anyway plenty of split testing to do.

Definitely - so many factors = so much fun to have!

Let me know how you get on with those additional tests. I'm a huge SEO buff.

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Rokas92

10 years ago

Thins change time-to-time

Also something works for one and doesn't for another, so it's pretty complicated to determine whether they work better than others or not.
P.S this is a great idea for a case study

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yukon

Banned 10 years ago

I have plenty of sitewide links but all those sites linking to each other are relevant. It's not a big deal unless you spam it out. If you have thousands of payday anchor-text links on recipe sites it's kinda obvious.

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nik0

Banned 10 years ago

Originally Posted by yukon

I have plenty of sitewide links but all those sites linking to each other are relevant. It's not a big deal unless you spam it out. If you have thousands of payday anchor-text links on recipe sites it's kinda obvious.

So dozen of links on a juicer site and dozens on a bird cage site and dozens on 8 other sites are kinda obvious. Still the money site on a complete different topic does very well.

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FranksToys

10 years ago

Don't over do it with sitewide links and you won't have a problem. Many over do it and buy only sitewide paid links or build themes with sitewide links. Not smart.

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flesterking

10 years ago

You may get a boost initialy with the footer links, but sooner or later you will be hit by the penalty. I have a site penalized with sitewide links. So be careful with footer links.

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nik0

Banned 10 years ago

Originally Posted by flesterking

You may get a boost initialy with the footer links, but sooner or later you will be hit by the penalty. I have a site penalized with sitewide links. So be careful with footer links.

Yes let's see what happens when Penguin 3.0 finally launches, waiting forever it seems.

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altonroot

10 years ago

Importance of interlinking is always there. And your point proves that link to your own other websites of different niche is not a problem at all. I think it relates to original offline marketing. People trust me and my business and I have started other business so people will prefer my other business if they need it without any doubt. So it is always ethical to sought I have other businesses too.

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Footer links still work pretty damn well

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