5 replies to this topic

[Drew-z]

I am pretty sure I already know the answer, but here it goes anyway since I have seen this done successfully on high ranking sites



As a web designer, I put a link to my company site discretely at the bottom of pages I build. I have discussed this as sound in other forums with a small amount of debate.

The dilemma is that it can be taken a bit further. Specifically, with code that reads as such:

<a href='index.com'>Company Name</a> <a href='mysite/webdesign.com>Web Design</a> and <a href='mysite/seo.com'>search optimization</a>

The appropriate part of the company description does point to the appropriate page, thus making it seem ethical.

However, I am obviously also doing this to get links to subsidiary pages as well as well as the index.

Is this ethical and a prudent SEO tactic for generating incoming links?

[Bernard]

From a business owner's point of view, I would not like your fingerprints all over my site. Am I paying you to advertise yourself on my site???

I don't mind a discrete advertisement/link on a links page or so, but multiple links on every page? That's more than I would tolerate as a client.

[qwerty]

The main problem is that the one phrase works out to three links. I think I've already told you that I don't think that's a very safe strategy, Drew. But I still love your style sheet

[Scottie]

If search engines didn't exist, would you do this? If link popularity meant nothing, would you still do it this way?

It crosses the line from a simple credit to an advertisement of your various services. If your client doesn't mind doing your advertising for you, I don't see a problem with it.

[Drew-z]

From a business owner's point of view, I would not like your fingerprints all over my site.  Am I paying you to advertise yourself on my site???

Fair enough.

My clients have always been phyched to help and have never mentioned having a problem with it. If they ever requested it be removed it obviously would. And with CSS it is very discrete significantly below the page and appears as one link.

In other words, fingerprints all over the site is apparently not the way they see it (albeit, i understand your point). I'd like to think it's more that my clients think they love their site, got / get great service, and for those visiting their site, they would be happy to be able to recommend me to others.

My concern, though, is the ramifications for SEO purposes .

[Jill]

If this were just a paragraph on your own site that pointed to other pages in your site, there would be nothing wrong with it, and in fact it would be a good thing as it would be nice call-to-action links for your visitors.

It seems to me if this were something you put simply on the home page of your client's site, with their full knowledge and permission of course, there shouldn't be anything inherently wrong with it. Either for the site visitors or the search engines. Having it on each page of their site might be a bit much, but more for the users then the search engines.

Jill