Latest news in site-wide footer?

[mbrusyo]

I've asked my web team to add a section to our home page to showcase our latest news and content (articles, blog entries (same domain), white papers, case studies, etc.)

I think it will be a good user experience and also provide an opportunity to keep a fairly stagnant home page updated with fresh content.

My web team wants to add the section to our footer, which is site-wide. I'm sure this isn't a bad user experience, but will it cause problems or eliminate any SEO value (if any) for this regularly updating content?

[JaneCopland]

Hi Michelle,

It's common to have latest news displayed in a set area of a select few pages, but I would not recommend this being a footer element. Footers have long been used for spam purposes, meaning that Google has a habit of disregarding their content or taking it as possible manipulation if it sees something undesirable in this area.

Absolutely no problem having a regularly occurring piece of navigation on pages, but perhaps reconsider placing this latest news section site-wide, especially in the footer.