Thoughts on these footer links

[netviper]

I have a site that has about 20 footer links.  A main Category and 4-5 links under each.

The site is very large, so I feel they do have some value for navigation, and they don't blend in with the background at all.

I know penguin was cracking down on footer links, but I don't feel theses are "spammy" links.

Will it hurt long-term to leave these links, or should we pull them?

[EGOL]

EGOL:   "I don't feel theses are "spammy" links."

Google:  "What you think doesn't matter."

EGOL:  uhhh....

Google:  "If these are such kickass links why are you hiding them in the footer?  Get them up high and in bold font so that everybody who enters the site will see them.... Then we will give them their due importance."

[netviper]

I like your creative reply.  I guess it doesn't matter what we think.  Is there any way to tell if footer links are actually hurting your site?

[EGOL]

Just me guessin'.....

I doubt that they will "hurt" your site unless those links are going to external sites with a poor reputation or external sites that are unrelated.

One thing that I can say with a little more confidence...

When I place a link to a page in the top navigation of my site the rankings usually go up.... and the page that I removed to make space for it usually drops.  It takes weeks to months to see this change but that is my experience.

[EGOL]

New post on the SEOmoz blog that addresses some of the good and bad things about footer links.   Give it a look....

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/internal-linking-strategies-for-2012-and-beyond