Is a footer with keyword+city links considered over-optimization?

Hi everyone,

I’m working on a website where we have pages for multiple cities, each page optimized for a specific keyword combined with the city name (e.g., “Sneakers in New York”). Currently, I’m considering adding a footer that lists all 24 cities, each with the keyword+city name as anchor text, like “Sneakers in Los Angeles,” “Sneakers in Miami,” etc.

My question is: Could having all 24 of these keyword-rich links in the footer be seen as over-optimization or spammy by Google? I want to make sure this strategy helps with internal linking without risking any penalties.

Has anyone tried something similar? If so, how did it impact your SEO? Any advice or alternative approaches would be appreciated!




Thanks in advance!

No... not if it's relevant... Plenty of benefits very little drawbacks in my opinion. Plugin provides something very similar and is very good is "magicpageplugin" google it, have fun.
I always say do what's right for you in the moment, meaning if it is not beyond your capabilities and morals, go for it. Learn by doing.
Have fun

So do you consider that it is not something that could be penalized?

No... it could but I mean you have to be smart about it, each page is not going to be exact duplicates, you are going to have relevant location based information on each page such as counties, maps, phone numbers etc.... if it's all the same, then you are to blame.
Goodluck

I think this practice could risk over optimisation and appear spammy links to Google. Its algorithm is very smart to detect such links. Have you thought about a dropdown button find your city and list them?

Could indeed look like over-optimization to Google. Consider varying anchor text (e.g., “Find sneakers in Miami” or just the city name), linking to a central "Locations" page, or only including a few high-traffic cities in the footer.

I think you can use the dropdown menu to list all your cities instead of listing all the cities in the footer. If needed, just include the cities in the footer that drive major traffic to avoid the over optimization.

rox94 said:

Has anyone tried something similar? If so, how did it impact your SEO? Any advice or alternative approaches would be appreciated!

Click to expand...

If you're not sure you can also check out other bigger websites in your niche or your competitors, see if they're implementing it too

If it's natural, you shouldn't have any issues. If it's relevant and adds value to the page for easier navigation google should actually welcome it. If it's obvious you're just spamming keywords for SEO purposes in the footer it's a different story.

Quizás lo mejor sea colocar las ciudades con mayor tráfico en el pie de página, y un texto de anclaje que envíe a una página que tenga un mapa de todas las ciudades. La duda que tengo es cómo hacer interlinking entre estas 24 ciudades, me gustaría repartir la autoridad entre ellas. La estructura de la página es Silo, donde cada ciudad es una categoría.

¿Qué consejos me das para poder interconectar todas las ciudades?

¡Muchas gracias por tus comentarios!