On page internal link text

[JamesJacobs]

Hi, I'm in the process of rebuilding/designing an existing well ranking niche bespoke software site and have the following question -

In the footer, I'm planning on linking to the main landing pages (blue widget software, red widget software etc theres about 7 in total). In these links I want to know if its best to have the word "software" in each link as I'm scared of it looking spamy. We sell custom software, and a lot of the keywords that currently attract traffic (as reported in analytics) end in the word software, for example -

blue widget software

red widget software

In the footer would you end each link with software or not? How much effect would this have on rankings?

Thanks in advance.

[AlanMosley]

As long as it reads naturaly i would not worry.

but while you are doing this you should think of you internal linking structure
take a look at this calculator
http://www.webworkshop.net/pagerank_calculator.php?pgs=15

try linking to every page from home page and to home page from every page (all top row and all left row)

now try linking to every page from home page and to home page and landing pages from every page.

what you do not want is a links to every page from every page.

This is called link sculpting. reading this page will explain lots if you are not already up to speed.
http://www.webworkshop.net/pagerank.html

[JamesJacobs]

Wow that calculator look complecated! I was just planning on having a top nav bar with the main sections of the site with the main landing pages listed in the footer (theres about 10). Obv the footer links would be repeated on every page as would the nav bar so I think that will create somehting similar to what your saying.

[Dan-Petrovic]

No need to repeat word software so much, Google will know what you are about. Write it down naturally and keep the number of links to around 100 per page. The rest should be handled by site hierarchy.

[AlanMosley]

The long and the short of it is
link to and from the home page to every page
link to landing pages from as many links as posible.

what you accomplish is pushing your sites rank onto selcted pages

[JamesJacobs]

Ok, Thanks. The page names and titles will include the word software anyhow.

[Hondaspeder]

Google really doesn't pay attention to footer links much anymore. Because of that exact reason: they know they're commonly used for spam and keyword stuffing. Write for humans; not for robots. Good luck!