Another Footer Links question

[NeilD]

I have reposted this as a new question as I posted in an old 'Answered' question but not had a reply.

Footer links

We have generated new business from links that we have on client sites linking back to us. The new client will call/email us saying "we see you did example.com website, which we like, would you mind quoting for a redesign our website".  Without that link we may never have got that new piece of business.

We always ask the client if we can place on link on their website and they all say ok. We don't do this for purely for SEO. The only thing we have done previously is to include the link in the footer of every page on the client site, which we are now in the process of changing to being only the client home page.

With that in mind, is the following ok to do?

1. Place text/image link in footer of client home page

2. Link to be "nofollow" which goes to specific page on our own website e.g. oursite.com/portfolio/clientname.php

3. on oursite.com/portfolio/clientname.php page we link back to client's home page, again this would be a "nofollow"

[irvingw]

If you want to do this for SEO then link dofollow on their homepage only and use text not an image.

If it's for traffic then put it globally on the site (since you never know what page a user is coming in on) and nofollow the link.

Nofollow the links on your your own sites client page.

[NeilD]

Thanks Irving. Is it ok to dofollow from client site homepage to our site even if client's site content is not relevant to our own e.g. different business sectors?

[BlueprintMarketing]

I honestly would be careful a little bit about putting links in the footer. Now I know there's a lot of debate have regarding this question. Google does look at some of it as spamy if I recall correctly one penguin came out one of the things mentioned was Web agencies were hit when they placed their URL in the footer of the websites they made.

I would obviously use text in the footer so somebody can highlight it and either Google or copy and paste. Definitely agree with Irving do not use a photograph as you would have to link in that format For it to be effective simply write your name not in the link format.

If the customer does something relevant to what your company does then I would ask them for the link. And ask it to be placed somewhere in the body as a thank you or reference. Those would be ideals obviously the footer of course is still all right.

Have you been getting negative feedback from Google regarding using links in this fashion?

They would definitely not counted as much because like you said you're not in the same wheelhouse.

I hope I've been of some help,

Thomas

[irvingw]

Relevancy is better but not necessary. More importantly is that the site is quality, not penalized, not selling links and the link is not sitewide.

Also I would not use your main keyword term for link building - use a different long tail on each site and point to internal URLs and not your homepage if you have appropriate landing pages. Have the link in content if possible.

The only question I would have though, is if this is for traffic, why would it bring any volume of qualified traffic to your site if it's not the same niche?

[NeilD]

Thomas, I haven't had any negative feedback, this is more to do with getting things done appropriately and one thing we are acutely aware of is that the footer links back to us are on every client page which we are busy reviewing/correcting. This question is kind of the next step, to make sure what we are doing does/will not penalise the client site but still helps us a little

Like I said in my initial question we do get referrals from client sites because of the link we have in the footer.

[NeilD]

Irving, thanks for clarifying.

On our site we have portfolio pages for each client and that is what we will link to from the client's home page, so each link back will be a unique url and not a link back to our home page.

Regarding long tail link what kind of wording would you recommend / suggest, something like 'Website for Client Company designed by My Company'?

[irvingw]

i would make the long tail list based on your keyword research and have the main keyword in there