Hi all I am a small web designer. I currently put a "designed by" link to my site in the footer of each page of websites I do. Is this dangerous in SEO terms - or acceptable? Should I just have a designed by link on the home page? (To me, I might get traffic from the other sites from any page and so - for that reason - it's best to have the link on each page.) However, am concerned as to whether I might get a penalty as the number of websites I create like this increases.
Some clients will be less pleased about it than others, it's always best to ask the client and incentivise him/her for allowing it. A rule of thumb is to target the homepage rather than all the subpages - you might get the occasional click through, but what you have to remember is that people generally don't visit a website to find out who designed it (unless they're looking to plagiarise it).
I don't see any problem with it, you do have the right to do so without having to fear of a google penalty whatsoever. However, if you would like to play it safe, you can add the nofollow tag and targeting only traffic from the footer link.
think about it, we designed 5 wordpress themes and let people download them provide they keep the footer in tact, problem is 3 sites in particular have over 10,000 pages per site giving us lots of backlinks form one site for THE SAME KEYWORD! Looks odd to google and we HAVE been penalised.
Keeping it to the homepage is the most natural way to Google. After that, like geester said, you can get nailed. Think about sites that could use your link. Autoblogs, illegal/questionable stuff, etc. You want to limit your liability while building links from your work at the same time. It is tricky but I would definitely stay with a homepage only link.
I own a small IT Consulting Business and when we have a client who needs a website we offer a slight discount for allowing a "designed by" link. How is this any different from purchasing a footer text link on a website? When doing so you would want that link on every page, correct? Unless the person selling is using a dynamic script, chances are it will be the same keyword on all their pages.