Site-wide links: Nofollow or eliminate altogether?

[brad.s.knutson]

As a web developer, it's not uncommon for me to place a link in the footer of a website to give myself credit for the web design/development.

I recently decided to go back and nofollow all these site-wide footer links, to avoid potentially looking spammy.

I wanted to know if I should remove these links altogether, and just give myself text credit without a link at all?  I would like for a potential client who is interested in my work to still be able to get to my site if they like my work - but I want to keep my link profile squeaky clean.

Thoughts?

[Devanur-Rafi]

Hi, I would stay away from any and all kinds of site-wide links for obvious reasons in this post Penguin update era. If I were you, I would have left the link only on the home pages of my clients' websites and of course no-follow them. As you know, more than the bad links themselves, its the intention behind those links harms you in the long run and Google is very good at finding the intention behind a link profile. So why take a chance my friend?

Here is a similar discussion about the topic recently:

http://moz.com/community/q/are-these-links-to-my-site-bad

Best,

Devanur Rafi

[brad.s.knutson]

Thanks Devanur,

I understand that site-wide links should be avoided, and I fully understand why.

What I'm asking is if it's necessary to physically remove those links altogether, or if nofollowing them will suffice?  You suggested I do both (remove all but homepage and nofollow home page link) - so I'm looking for more clarity here.

Thanks!

Brad

[Devanur-Rafi]

Hi Brad, my take on this would be to remove the site-wides, leave the link only on homepages and no-follow them. In the past and recently I have seen few instances where a web design firm left its link on the websites built by them. Later, some of those websites were never developed and left as it is with very thin content providing no value to the visitors and the Internet. In cases like these, you will be left with a low quality link pointing to your site. The other case would be what if those websites built by you will never get good content and moreover turn out to other shady businesses, you will have a big problem here too. Just not to take a chance, I would always recommend to no-follow your link on the homepages of websites that you build unless you are very sure about the credibility of the website or its owners. But as far as site-wides are concerned, big NO.NO.

Hope that help my friend

Best,

Devanur Rafi