Ok, if you have links in your footer to your home page on the same site, it will probably do basically nothing (not hurt or help) since usually the logo or header text is linked to the home page (usually) and Google will only give the first link on a page to one URL the most value. Some people think additional links to the same URL have zero value, I think they're mistaken but there is defiantly diminishing returns.

Also, the lower down the page the link is, the lower value it will be, so footer links are generally almost worthless and if it's a repeated link, then yeah... Probably doesn't do anything and it's diluting the power of other links on the page.

Usually professionals who want to link to other sites in the footer, will widgetize the footer and actually place the outbound links at the start of the footer area. With internal navigation links to the right and below the outbound links. So if you disabled CSS, the outbound links would be at the top of the footer.

If it's a site-wide link back to the home page then it has nothing to do with a silo. The footer is irrelevant either way, assuming it's still a followed internal link.

Footer links dont get as much as juice as content or navigation links.

However, it could benefit specific oages if you link to them in your footer. More internal links to a page with a particular keyword means more relevance for that topic. So, it depends.

Then you don't have footer but independent pages...

Regardless, links inside your site's pages are part of site's structure and recognized as such



fastreplies

So this is something where I'd recommend, if you want to put your footer link there, make sure it has a nofollow link there

Ok, welcome to the world of SEO, one where things change frequently, and if you are not employed with Google, Bing, Yahoo / it's always a guess.
1. Engines frequently change algorithms in response to spam websites, internet marketers and new implementations.
2. Resources you find often become outdated. Frequent changes means a high percentage of resources people are reporting on, are often outdatted.
3. Search engines don't always tell everyone what's up. They find it through AB testing, integrating new techniques and testing. B]Everyone in this industry is guess and checking to some extent. [/B]

"If you are only guessing, then that doesn't help. I want to know from someone who knows for sure, please." - Good luck getting a solid answer with that mentality! - Understand most of this knowledge comes from lots of work implementing and monitoring - This is a resource and time consuming process.

I think it's good practice to get in tact with tools you need and testy it yourself. Implement and check what happens. There is a lot of websites out there, if everyone new best practices, it would be very hard to rank for anything.

Footer considerations:
1. They are links at the bottom of your page, this means they are going to be less important to Google than say a link in your first paragraph.
2. They are sitewide links, as far as i am concerned they are duplicate content, but at the same time, they are also linking on every page meaning they are passing equity in the form of # of links.... This has to be telling google something about important pages.
3. Silo is referring to something different, but if you are asking if it will pass link juice back and emphasize your home page, you might be correct, try it and see what happens. Note that one footer link dilutes every other dofollow link on every other page.
4. Usability wise, it wouldn't hurt to have a backlink to your homepage in the footer if you have no fixed toolbar and would like to direct traffic back or keep them on site.
5. A link back in your footer that is a dofollow is going to cycle linkjuice back into your homepage, and once again flow through links on that page, so - you're diluting each link around each page, but if your homepage is linking to very important pages or your search engine landing pages it might benefit you - At the end of the day, what is your goals? Are we trying to enhance your homepage? Specific landing pages? That's important to know.

Use this tools to monitor your linkjuice flow - https://www.webceo.com/ I use it daily, it's a good indicator for what your changes are doing to the importanceof each page in the eyes of a search engine.

Using links in the footer is a good practice in the optimization of the website.

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Including a sitemap in your footer gives you the opportunity to present every part of your website to visitors as soon as they view any page of the site. This could have some key advantages:

1. New visitors, visiting the site for the first time will be able to find what they want much faster, without having to use navigation menus
2. It could have a very positive effect on your bounce rate*
3. For example, a visitor arriving at the site through a Google search who is looking for a specific page or piece of information may see a footer link of interest and follow it. Had the link not been on view in the footer, they may have just left as soon as they obtained the information they were originally seeking
4. Having the sitemap in the footer as oppose to on an individual page will save your visitors clicks

According to Oliver Cundale, SEO Team