Sitewide Vs HomePage Links For Network of Sites

[upick-162391]

I wanted to site wide link a few sites together as they are sort of in the same network of ownership and wanted some advice.

1X PR1
2X PR2 
2x PR3

1. Would it be best to just get home page links before the footer, the links will be within a paragraph of text

OR

2. Just site wide link them in the footer with a heading of "Our Shopping Network"

[RyanKent]

Home page links are normally the most valuable links a site can offer. Links within a paragraph of text (i.e. in content) are the most valuable links a page can offer. Footer links are the least valued links a page can offer.

Option #1 is definitely preferred.

[upick-162391]

Would it be wise to combine both have homepage intext links and also footer links? Wouldn't footer site wide links also pass a signification amount of link juice as well?

[RyanKent]

You are welcome to do both, but I would only do such if you felt the link would actually be used by visitors or otherwise added value to your site.

The SEO value of footer links is quite small. It is my belief Google understands footer links, understands sitewide links, and assigns a value accordingly.