Worthwhile to have global footer links?

[knielsen]

About Us, FAQ, Site Map, Terms & Privacy - I know rarely viewed by users (at least on my website), so why keep in global footer across all pages, since one could argue it will dilute some link juice to more important pages?Why not just keep on homepage only? What is argument for having links to these pages across all pages on a site? Is there any SEO value?

[AgentsofValue]

Hi Kristian,

Global footer links are not anymore recommended to have on websites as they used to.

Aside from what you mentioned about link juice being passed on away from the more important pages, footer links are, most of the time, devalued by search engines and they also get low CTR.

Still, a lot of sites are still using them as resource for link placement.

So I guess it still depends if you have a really nice organization and layout as a footer (like this: http://shopper.cnet.com) then keep it. If not, it might just be a waste of your time.

Cheers!

[knielsen]

My footer links are well-organized, but few and they are About, FAQ, Sitemap, Terms & Privacy, which in theory are good for users to have access to throughout my site. However, if I know less than 5% of users click on those, that means very little user value. Will it help me from an SEO perspective to keep those footer links throughout my site or is the answer a clear "no" and I should only keep if the users benefit from having those links. Again, especially on my deeper pages with low PA, I am concerned about spreading the link juice on an already weak page....

[AgentsofValue]

If its organized and really simple like the footer here in SEOMoz (check below), then keep it. If its just 5-6 footer links, I dont think it would take up a lot of link juice.

Plus footer links, (not considering SEO and Google) are indeed useful for site navigation purposes.

[matbennett]

If your users are looking for that information in the footer those links should be there.  To remove them in case it provides some ephemeral SEO benefit is looking at your website the wrong way around.

Billions of pages have those same links in those same spots. This includes some of the best, and best-ranking pages on the internet.  I wouldn't worry.

If you are really concerned for some reason - here's an idea.  Have a single link to covering all those topics going to a page called 'legal' or something.  Link that page to the pages you used to have in the footer, but also to key pages in the site.

Mathematically that greatly reduces the problem of leaking pagerank. However I suspect that there are far far better uses of resources.

[Cyrus-Shepard]

Hi Kristian,

Generally, we advise to keep links in useful places that add value for visitors, but prune links that are added solely for search engine manipulation.

Links like "About Us" and "privacy" can add a huge amount of trust to a website. Even if only 1% of your customers click there, it's a huge value add for those customers, in my opinion.

Yes, there is an issue of pagerank dilution, but unless you have dozens of links in this area it's usually a minimal concern. Search engines use so many other ranking factors, it's not a big deal.

That said, it's sometimes useful to combine links - both for ease of navigation and link consolidation. Like "Terms & Privacy" and "About Us" - which leads to a seperate pages about Team > Services > etc.

[knielsen]

good answer, Cyrus. I think the trust factor is probably more relevant than that 1% of users that may click. Other users will scroll and see those about, faq etc links and that ads trust and I think that is key why it makes sense to keep.

[EcomLkwd]

Thanks for the great answers! This is very helpful for me.