'Powered by...' anchor text links

[mjs_adr]

Hi Mozzers!

We're a web design and dev agency in Kent, UK who don't really provide SEO services (tend to outsource and focus on our core competencies!)

Have never really bothered putting 'Powered by...' or 'built by...' anchor text links at the foot of our client sites that link back to ours.  Obvs we have a huge back catalogue of opportunities to add this to various sites which, if clients agree of course, would push our backlinks above our key competitors overnight (according to OSE).

Good idea or Spammy/back hattie???

Cheers guys.

[mjs_adr]

Thanks  Rebecca, frustrating though as our competitor is ranking top for 'web development' local searches and having run OSE on their site the only reason is by adding anchor links to sites they've developed.  This is generating them dozens of new enquiries pcm compared to our zero!

[EGOL]

I agree.

[BradsDeals]

Bad idea. I would not do this kind of footer link without a rel=nofollow, ever. Google has been known to target footer links like these for unnatural link building practices. (Check out this article by Barry Schwartz from a couple years back.) Just because something has been a "standard practice" for a long time doesn't mean it's white hat today.

Edited to add:
By the way, the fact that you're talking about how to add them slowly enough to stay under Google's radar should be enough to tell you that what you're planning may not be on the up and up.

[mjs_adr]

Thanks Umar, we've got about 100 RDs that we can add our link to which will give us about 10,000 backlinks.  Was going to add about at a rate of about 20 RDs per week. Seem reasonable to you?

[UmarKhan]

Hey,

I agree lots of agencies are following this practice but the question stated "we have a huge back catalogue of opportunities". So, it's not a good idea to get the tons of links on these phrases in a short time. That's why I said, it "might" get caught into a spammy practice.

Plus, if you have the opportunity to get some decent links, it's better to have them on your branded term to give away a strong brand signal to google.

What do you think?

[emarketexperts]

Hi Umar,

Just wondering, how it is going to be Spammy ? Hyperlinking keywords in footer is a regular practise all Webdesign & SEO company do. I dont think it will be termed spammy.

[UmarKhan]

Hey Steve,

I'm afraid it might be caught into Spammy practice because of the latest penguin updates. You should get the links from these sources after all you deserves them but just change the approach a bit.

Rather getting links on "Powered by", "built by" or "developed by", you should try to get the links on your branded term. Something like "Developed by Moz".

Google has no objection, if you're getting links on your branded term and your profile will gonna look more authoritative and natural.

Hope this helps!

Have a rocking Sunday!

Umar