Another reason why footer links suck...

ThopHayt

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It seems Google offically views footer links as "not primary content." SEO Round Table posted this tid bit: https://www.seroundtable.com/footer-boilerplate-content-google-21941.html

While footer links aren't targeted for penalty automatically, it is CLEAR that Google views then as unimportant. So for those of you wondering if buying a footer link on a popular site will boost you much it seems clear that the answer is probably NO.

My next question would have been, "well what about links in widgets then?" but sadly it wasn't asked... but I now have my doubts about Google's views on those.

Be careful what you buy fellows.
 
It seems Google offically views footer links as "not primary content." SEO Round Table posted this tid bit: https://www.seroundtable.com/footer-boilerplate-content-google-21941.html

While footer links aren't targeted for penalty automatically, it is CLEAR that Google views then as unimportant. So for those of you wondering if buying a footer link on a popular site will boost you much it seems clear that the answer is probably NO.

My next question would have been, "well what about links in widgets then?" but sadly it wasn't asked... but I now have my doubts about Google's views on those.

Be careful what you buy fellows.

They stopped counting thous back in 2011 or 2012 I believe, back when they where really cracking down on big link exchange sites.
 
I thought this was pretty well known for a couple years now, along with your second question about widget links. I would never spend money on either.

That being said, every local web design business here is at the top of the rankings and that's all that they have so much have some value. Would love to see them penalized.
 
Yeah it's old news. Focus on getting good quality links in the content body
 
I agree with you on footer links. That are probably useless.
I think links in widgets work much better and reliably. You must have to try it. It works slowly but reliable than others.
 
footer links work, they may not be as powerful as content links, but they are not discounted.
 
I thought this was pretty well known for a couple years now, along with your second question about widget links. I would never spend money on either.

That being said, every local web design business here is at the top of the rankings and that's all that they have so much have some value. Would love to see them penalized.

same observation on my side; those ranked at the top, have footer links or sidebar links form other sites.. so I think it is still counted as something.
 
It doesn't sound logical for them to be 100% useless, they probably still have some value.
 
thank you so much for sharing this. now, i was struggling with trying to figure out between doing footer links or not. The case on that site, shows that you do get benefits from footer links.

what I dont understand why there are some people here saying not to do it?! specially sites who are ranking at the top for my keyword, are getting help from footer/side bar links from other sites. something does not add up from what i see and from what some people are saying here.
 
thank you so much for sharing this. now, i was struggling with trying to figure out between doing footer links or not. The case on that site, shows that you do get benefits from footer links.

what I dont understand why there are some people here saying not to do it?! specially sites who are ranking at the top for my keyword, are getting help from footer/side bar links from other sites. something does not add up from what i see and from what some people are saying here.
The same here.
I have competitors who rank #1 doing exactly that.

People like to spread bs because it's easier than doing case study & your own research.
 
This is how webdesign and SEO companies get majority of their backlinks. It definitely gives some weight to those domains.
 
There are sites ranking very well in my niche using footer links!!
 
WordPress.org is like 99% footer links so I doubt they'll ever penalise for it
 
I still see my competitors ranking using sidebar links. Even though I still not ranking yet. But personally, I try to avoid it as I prefer to be on the safe side.
 
There are trends back before when they used to sponsor free wordpress themes with their links in footer.Quite clever I think until google discourages such practice.
 
Time to start putting my "designed by..." link in the header then.

I'm just kidding. :p
 
I see a lot of confused faces.

Let me translate to our languages.

Here's what Google is saying:


1. Pay less for footer/sidebar links (aka sidewide links)
2. Pay more for content links
 
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