I have a wordpress based site here, and a while back I placed some links in the footer. These are links to a mix of sites that are mine or that I am trying to build links for. I've read a bit of speculation about the worth of such links before, but I've now also read speculation about possible harm. I accept these links are of little value, but I'd be worried if they could be seen by the search engines in a negative way (i.e. adversely effect serps) Anybody got an opinion on this one? Thanks
Boy, I may be clueless, but I use footer links on all of my sites. Typically, as you'll see if you look at the CPA web site, I'm trying to optimize for local search, though... so maybe that makes a difference.
because they are not that relevant, you might be hurting yourself. if you want to build a powerful site, you need to keep the relevancy tight.
To keep google happy and not bully my sites because I have links to my other sites, I use no-follow tags on those links heading out to my other sites. Same with the sponsor, wordpress, designer and any other links at the footer than have nothing to do with my blogs.
it's always better to have relevant anchor text and links in order for it to be as powerful as it can be. but no footer links don't hurt as long as there not 50 links in your footer.
Yes, leave the 50 or more footer links to proxy sites! All others, keep it at I would say 10 or less.
In sites that are not related to the conent of your site, the footer note links are better to be left out