Links to Website Author

[SiteWizard_LLC]

I'm a website developer, and in the past I have usually added a tiny backlink to the footer of my clients' websites like this:

Website Design by MyCompanyName

I understand that Google sees this as a low-quality backlink.  However, I was wondering if such links can hurt my rankings.  Does Penguin sees these links as spam?  If so, should I add a rel="nofollow" to the links?  Is there anything else I should change?

I do not want to remove these links completely because they are good for marketing my business.  I just want to minimize any negative SEO impact of the links.

I appreciate your input.  Thanks.

[GeorgeAndrews]

Hello! Here's another similar question that has been answered:

http://www.seomoz.org/q/google-penguin-question-re-footer-links

Personally, I would continue using your brand name and just remove the keywords. Others may feel differently, but I like to continue marketing my brand and a link with my brand name is going to be more natural than exact match anchor text for the keywords I'm targeting.

Here's what I would do:

Website designed by Brand Name

Hope this helps!

[donford]

George provided a great link.

You certainly need to be aware of the amount of links and anchor text you are putting out in the world. I believe Cyrus Shepard mentioned a very good alternative to carpet bombing footer links inside a template you made

"... instead of a footer link, how about a single, well placed editorial link somewhere on a real page? (this might be hard to manage with some of your clients, but it's worth a shot).."

I like this option because I am personally of the impression that if you are paid to develop a website then you should also be up front about any other benefit you receive by doing so, and a link (advertisement) is certainly a benefit to you. This could and should IMO be negotiated in a professional manner with the client. Now if you are just selling templates ala template monster or a similar site, then I would remove my name from it period. Since you can't control what happens to the template after it is downloaded.

Hope that helps.