External Sitewide Links and SEO

[Philip-SEO]

I have one big question about the potential SEO value -- and possibly also dangers? -- of "followed" external sitewide links.

Examples of these would be:

• a link to your site from another site's footer
• a blogroll link
• a link to your site from another site's global navigation

Aside from the link's position in the HTML file (the higher the better, presumably), are these links essentially the same from an SEO point of view or different (and how)?

There used to be an influential view out there that the link juice value of a sitewide link was the same as that of a single link (presumably from the linking site's home page), even though a sitewide link may in fact result a huge number individual links. Is this true or false? What is the math here?

Should one worry about having "too many" sitewide links, in the sense that this may raise red flags by way of the algo?

I talked to someone a few months ago (before the recent algo updates) who believed that he had got a minus 10 penalty or whatever it was for getting too many sitewide links

We offer website design and development as well as SEO, and we put a keyworded link to ourselves in the footer. I think this is a fairly common practice. Is this a good or bad idea SEO-wise?

One opinion is that for external sitewide footer links, you should best have a dofollow link on the home page, but nofollow it on all other pages. What is your opinion about that?

Is there anything else that is distinct, interesting or important about sitewide links' SEO value and pitfalls?

Thank you!

[randfish]

Story's still pretty much the same - I'd be MORE worried than before if you're doing either in a way that could be perceived as intentionally manipulative and more for engines than users, but I wouldn't sweat doing either if it's user-focused, high value and editorial.

[SeoExpertos]

Hi Rand,

Now with Google Panda update do you think the same about this issue?

I am asking from both sides:

1. Having links sitewide on an external web.

2. Having sitewide links in my web to an external one.

Looking forward to your reply!

All the best,

Exequiel

[randfish]

Hrm. On #1 - maybe sometimes? It really depends on the case scenario. A blogroll link is often either on every page or a separate page linked to on every other page of the site (like SearchEngineLand). That probably gets you 99% of the value you'd get from links to your homepage from another blog. Just having another link from a "what's hot" or "recommended" section doesn't seem like it would do that much more (unless you're talking in terms of user CTR and the benefits that brings, in which case, yes - I like it!)

On #2 - Never heard that. I'd probably say that if the link in the footer is manipulative, ask that it be somewhere else. If it makes sense/belongs there, it's probably OK to have it followed.

[Philip-SEO]

Thanks much for your helpful response.

I further wonder:

1. One finds that on many blogs there is a blog roll but in the same sidebar there can also be single text links in some section like "what's hot" or "recommended" that appear only on the home page. On your view, these latter links are technically more potent, right? (Assuming everything is high quality and non-spammy.)

2. I have seen it recommended that if you are in a sitewide footer link, it's better if only the home page link were followed, but the same footer link on all other pages were made nofollow. Any truth to that?

[randfish]

My general stance would be to worry only if the links are obviously manipulative or non-editorial. If you've just happened to receive links from partners, clients, fans or bloggers that appear in footers sitewide, that's not a big issue. Look at networks like Conde Nast or Techmeme - sitewide links back and forth between all the related properties is a common thing.

They almost certainly don't pass the same value as separate, individually created links from each of those pages - the diversity of your link profile matters a lot, but unless there's other reason they look spammy, I wouldn't sweat it.

BTW - I also wouldn't intentionally target or pursue these kinds of links. SEOs used to do that when PageRank was the big dog in the algo, and every bit of PR juice meant more value, but nowadays, PR is just a small component of rankings.

[division1]

Yes, footer links are not so good as links from top content. So long they are good links my opinion is: I better have footer (relevant) link than no link at all.

[Philip-SEO]

I would appreciate substantiated, technical opinions, not mere intuitions about what might "make sense," please.

I don't see why an Auto Auction blog roll link on a car blog necessarily "sort of looks spammy," or why there would necessarily be no way to determine the link's topical relevance. Indeed, I think diversification would certainly benefit from at least a few such blog roll links, especially if they appear on authoritative and relevant blogs.

But this doesn't answer any of my questions.

[13375auc3]

Sitewide links sort of look spammy to me, and are more often not based around any sort of content that a search engine can also use to determine the relevance of a link.

This concept makes sense to me.

It's difficult to determine the value, but I think diversification is key in building a link portfolio, especially with the wide variety of websites passing votes to pages today.

Someone please correct me if I am wrong. I will vote myself down on this one.