Links in product UI

[mbrusyo]

We have a SaaS product that places a UI on our clients' websites. The UI often includes a link back to us. Think Live Chat (it's not, but the idea is similar) where the chat UI has a link "Live Chat by CompanyA". But our solution is not hosted - it's part of our customers' page. Our customers are big, enterprise companies (e.g., American Express).

Does this provide any value in terms of inbound linking? Would it introduce Penguin risk to have the product name as an anchor text link (think "Live Chat by CompanyA" with Live Chat as the link)?

Are there considerations I should think about? We're updating our standard UI, so it's a good time to make sure our SEO strategies are sound here.

[OlegKorneitchouk]

I would link the brand name instead of the keyword anchor text and optimize your actual page to rank for the "live chat" keyword. If you link the "money" anchor text, you risk the chance of over optimization (especially if its sitewide).

[Jarvatar]

If the companies you are working for are as big as you say then link your brand for two reasons:

1.  Most importantly - if your clients catch on to what you are doing they might view it as ethical, especially if they hire their own SEO person who is a purist.

2. If you're getting thousands of links for the same word over and over and over it could be over optimization...

My suggestion was to link the whole sentence as it accomplishes all your intended goals.

Alternatively, If you want to go this route, set up some sort of spinner.  Link Live Chat, then your brand instead or maybe the whole thing so that across all domains you get different links altogether.