Keyword rich footer links negative effect
-
Based on bits and pieces of information I've read on SEOmoz, am I correct to state that:
"Keyword-rich footer links effect pages negatively in terms of the keyword referenced in the anchor text?"This means footer links in
Thanks in advance fellow Mozzers!
-
I don't think there is any hard evidence on them, Rand talks about the footers and manipulation here:
There is evidence on the fact that if they are linking to a page that has already been linked to higher in the code, they count for nothing. Only the first anchor text links count in google's eyes. So unless you're linking to pages that are not within the nav, it's fairly pointless from an SEO point of view.
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/results-of-google-experimentation-only-the-first-anchor-text-counts
I think using the Footer for linking to pages already linked to is a waste of time. People use the navigation to find the page they're looking for. Footer anchors should be used for the stuff people expect to see there, i.e. T&Cs, policies, trust signals, awards, contact us, address, Company No. etc.
-
I don't think there is any hard evidence on them, Rand talks about the footers and manipulation here:
There is evidence on the fact that if they are linking to a page that has already been linked to higher in the code, they count for nothing. Only the first anchor text links count in google's eyes. So unless you're linking to pages that are not within the nav, it's fairly pointless from an SEO point of view.
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/results-of-google-experimentation-only-the-first-anchor-text-counts
I think using the Footer for linking to pages already linked to is a waste of time. People use the navigation to find the page they're looking for. Footer anchors should be used for the stuff people expect to see there, i.e. T&Cs, policies, trust signals, awards, contact us, address, Company No. etc.
-
True, but SEOmoz is a bit smaller also and all their important link are in the main menu now. The art of consolidating links so the most important gets the full juice, and then they send their juice to sub pages.
Link Sculpting
-
Yes, that wouldn't be too smart. I agree. I have tested that with 2 of my websites Dutch version linking in footer to English version and vice versa. That impacted the rankings extremely negative from Top 10 to Not in Top 100.
But now I was wondering about the effect internally.
What are your experiences?
-
I agree on that. I couldn't filter a negative effect from the ranking factors either. But I have seen it here or there on SEOmoz (as a side note).
When you check the footer of SEOmoz.org. It used to have these categorized links to some parts on the site. However, if you check the current version of their footer, they only use a few links and certainly don't mention any hot parts on the site, let alone mention keywords.
I have tested it on my own site and it did impact my rankings negatively but I wondered if that was coincidence or not.
-
If those keyword-rich footer links are pointing to other websites...
-
I believe the recently posted new ranking factors says that it is not a negative impact (although I just read it through once quickly). Presuming you are not stuffing links. The footer should not be your XML file copied, but key site categories and pages of interest.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Do we still have this Page Rank / Link juice / Link equity? So this dilution concept?
Hi all, As per the traditional or standard SEO rules, we have this link juice and dilution concept. Many websites have changed their linking structure with this with the beleif "the more number of pages, the PR will get diluted". Then many websites avoided more number of pages from homepage to avoid link juice dilution. Even we followed same. But I just wonder it's still the same way Google handles websites and rankings as per the links. And many websites even avoid more number of 2nd tier/hierarchy pages to avoid link dilution. I have gone through our competitors where they been employing lot of top level pages like 2nd tier/hierarchy pages but still doing good at rankings. Please share your views and suggestions on this. Thanks
Web Design | | vtmoz0 -
Do search engines see copy/keywords when it appears only at the bottom of a page?
My client is looking to improve their SEO, and to date I've written meta data and made some initial recommendations. Thing is, on some of their pages, the body copy appears at the bottom of the page, past links and big, splashy images. My question is, will search engines even see that copy to crawl it for keywords? Thanks!
Web Design | | MarcieHill0 -
Do pages with low PA effect DA?
I was looking into raising my firm's Domain Authority and I had a thought. I was wondering if our very low PA pages are bringing the overall DA down? Our homepage is at 43 currently and the DA is 32. We have quite a few pages and I am trimming a little fat in the deep pages currently. I was wondering what would be the result in terms of DA I am also starting an aggressive initiative to blog more and try to attract links through guest posting and HARO (Hep A Reporter Out). I understand that many people will say DA is not a metric your should necessarily build around. But, while I am fighting for rankings in a very competitive vertical, I assume a higher DA is better, no? From everything I have read on Moz over the years, they say that the DA metric is the one that tries to encompass a multitude of factors, similar to the way something more complex like the Google algorithm does. So, I assumed finding small gains in DA could be beneficial to the site's rankings and traffic I tried to go into detail and get specific here because I know how many bad questions are asked daily. Thanks anyone and everyone for the help, I do thoroughly appreciate the Moz community
Web Design | | BossArrighi0 -
Linking root and domain authority
Hi SEOMOZ community, Can you please advise on how to increase Linking root domains and domain authority. much appreciated.
Web Design | | wahin10 -
Keyword help for a beginner
Hello Everyone! I have a few simple questions about picking/using the best keywords for my website. Just to give a little background on the company, we sell branded servers (IBM, HP, DELL) workstations, storage, and related hardware and software (memory, processors, hard drives, operating systems, management software, etc...) I'm trying to pick the keywords to use on the home page but have these questions: 1. This question is a little hard for me to explain, but we would like to show up in the search results whether a user types in: Dell server(s) or IBM server(s) or HP Workstation so for the title tag can we use: DELL, IBM, HP Servers, Workstations, Storage or we need to use DELL Servers, IBM Servers, Dell Workstations, IBM Workstations, etc... Basically what I'm asking is can we combine keywords in the title tag or we need to write them out (hope this make sense) if not let me know and I'll try provide a little more detail and few more examples. 2. This question might not fall under this category of topics and might have to start a new thread but here it goes. We are re-designing our site on a new eCommerce platform using x-cart shopping cart, its a very configurable and inexpensive shopping cart however one of the drawbacks is its speed. Most users of the x-cart shopping cart software report on average of 2-4 seconds page loads, which is kind of slow. even with some heavy optimization you get about 1.5 - 2.5 seconds page load. I've heard that if you want to be higher in Google's search results speed is a big plus, being in the 0.5 second range is a huge plus. I was thinking of creating a static html home page that would include some company info, content with relevant keywords, some links to main categories... (basically kind of copy the google.com page but with a little more text) Would that be a good idea to implement? Hope this question makes sense as well or stick with the default shopping cart home page and try to optimize it as best as possible? 3. We probably have about 10 - 15 short keyword phrases that we want to concentrate on, again they would be:
Web Design | | igor.pinchevskiy
DELL Servers, HP Servers, IBM, Servers
DELL Workstations, HP Workstations, IBM Workstations,
DELL Memory, HP Memory, IBM Memory
DELL Hard Drives, HP Hard Drives, IBM Hard Drives What is the maximum or recommended quantity of keyword phrases to try to include on the home page? Is it also recommended to maybe create a separate page for each keyword phrase? Does a home page get better ranking then another page on the server just because its a home page? Hope my questions aren't too dumb and make sense. I appreciate everyone who takes their time to read through and answer my questions or guide me in the right path. Thank you,
Igor Pinchevskiy0 -
Anyone have a good example of a CSS-based multi-level nav bar that is semantic (including link level subordination) and is ux positive?
Anyone have a good example of CSS-based multi-level nav bar that is semantic (including link level subordination) and is ux positive? Or am I gonna have to actually make one? Anyone have a good example of CSS-based multi-level nav bar that is semantic (including link level subordination) and is ux positive? Or am I gonna have to actually make one?
Web Design | | anns0 -
Empirical Data on the effect of embedded Google Maps on Search Ranking
Does anyone have any empiric data on the effect of an embedded map on SERP's? Please understand that I already have anecdotal info and a personal opinion. I am looking for data. Thanks
Web Design | | RobertFisher0 -
Old SEO keyword "articles", are they hurting rankings?
Hello, About two years ago, the company I work for hired an SEO firm to improve organic rankings on our site. The SEO company's primary method for doing this was producing "articles" that are not really articles but keyword stuffed pages with lots of hidden, internal links to other legitimate pages on our site. Examples: http://www.creamright.com/Isi-Chargers-articles.html http://www.creamright.com/How-To-Make-Whipped-Cream-article.html http://www.creamright.com/Cream-Whipper-articles.html Obviously, this strategy wasn't greatly successful and we cancelled our work with the firm. However, we still have all of the "articles" on the site (about 50-60 pages total) and each page is navigable from the html and XML sitemaps. Additionally, the SEO firm we used built a lot of useless links to these pages from BS directory sites which are all still active. The question I have is whether we should remove these "article" pages or should leave them alone? Although I'm sure they aren't helping any of our SEO efforts, could deleting the pages after two years negatively impact our search rankings? Thanks in advance for any help on this, Doug M.
Web Design | | Loganshark1