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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.

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.