SEO footer links..

[onlykingjoe]

Hey guys,

So i am curious about footer linking, and if they are avoided now, what i should do with the pages i used to link too.

For the record and purposes of this discussion, when I refer to SEO links, I am not talking about over the top spammy links. Here is an example approach that I've been taking for years. So say I am a plumber, my header menu would consist of main landing pages like: Home, Plumbing Services, Contact

This is fine and they would have quite broad keyword content, but to target more niche keyphrases I would create "ultra Seo friendly pages". For example, I'd create "Plumbing London" and "Emergency leaks" and "out of hours plumbing". These sorts of pages I wouldn't want in my main header of course so I would put them in the footer, with the content of each page being very targeted and keyword rich.

Okay, now you have my example, here are two questions:

1. I've heard footer links should be avoided. Arguably they could be penalised, but even if they are not penalised, they definitely don't give any benefit, they are ignored. Is this true?

2. Does a page HAVE to be linked from somewhere on my site for it to count? So if the above is true, and I remove the footer links - would I have to link to that page from somewhere else for it to count or be indexed? Or is the link being in the sitemap enough...?

Cheers

 

[onlykingjoe]

Sorry to bump this, but I am hopeful for a reply

 

[Marz]

Hi,

1. I've heard footer links should be avoided. Arguably they could be penalised, but even if they are not penalised, they definitely don't give any benefit, they are ignored. Is this true?

If you have important pages you want to add to the footer I'd do it. However, I wouldn't use exact match links.

2. Does a page HAVE to be linked from somewhere on my site for it to count? If you want to improve the rankings/performance of a page, not in the main navigation, I suggest you to link it from important pages such as the homepage.

 

[Community]

1. Any sitewide link containing keyword phrases that are not in primary navigation has the possibility of being diluted/discounted/not given as much weight.

Penalised ? Not manually unless its clearly spammy behaviour, algohrythmically however , yes it could quite possibly result in pages not perfoming as well as they possibly could. Google is quite open with the fact that money anchors, in the footer and sidebars are not anywhere near as valuable as incontent and primary navigation links.

If you are putting pages in the footer and not in the main nav, the indication would be that they are not important to users.

2. To count ? No, sitemaps and inbound linking will get your pages indexed and ranking, however if pages are "orphaned" and internal linking is poor then you will be harming what could potentially be much better. Get creative, Internal linking is golden if done correctly

 

[Matt Futts]

Footer links were devalued years and years ago after WordPress theme developers abused them.

They're only useful for navigational purposes now.

 

[markjacobs]

Take great care with SEO footer links as google will often classify them as spam.

 

[himmatrathore]

If those are internal then no issue but external? then implement nofollow tag.