Link Credits and Site Wide Footer Links

Posted on July 9, 2009
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Are site wide webmaster links necessary or even beneficial?

I was talking with one of my clients recently about the importance of avoiding site wide links that lead to external locations when he had asked me why he could not find any sites on the web with links back to me from client templates after being in this business for about 9 years. The question at first didn’t really register with me as to why it would even matter but I gave him the very to-the-point answer that I don’t retain credits for 90% of my projects primarily because of who my clients are. In all the sites I build even for UltimateIDX or EZProRealty, their policy is to put site credit links pointing first inward to an article about the site and then from the article they will link to their sites as a form of contextual linking. The idea is as clear as a bell to me as to the motive why this should be done, but some people still wonder why having site wide designer links is even necessary. During the development of the UltimateIDX’s template inventory it was #1 on the list that site wide links would likely not be the objective in lieu of the heightened awareness that such links are not SEO beneficial. I’ll explain the conclusion we arrived to below.

Webmasters who publish free themes, templates and the like frequently put link-back links as the requirement for using the design. Most webmasters who do this try to put their best effort forward raising not only the standards but the expectation of what good theme and template design should be (theme and template are terms often interchangable). Many end users using the themes are happy with the arrangement in favor of using the design on their sites. It should be clear that that if a designer puts forth a design that is say, worth a thousand dollars in terms of time and development, that he/she should reap some reward for publishing it not only as an advertisement of their design ability but as type of pseudo payment. Keep the payment part in mind becaue it plays a roll. In simple terms it means, "you can use my expensive template freely providing you leave the design credits and link un-altered". Now although the point is a valid one and it really is the designers right to ask for the use license compliance to his request, many still question the overall effect on the sites ranking ability in part due to the site wide external link. There are newer alternatives being explored.

Our approach to the link-backs

To better demonstrate the characteristic of template link-backs I’ll disclose my own policy and then explain what UltimateIDX and others like them have been doing even with the distribution of free templates. Even though I’m not technically in the business of freelance web design on its surface I do take on private projects for individual websites and in most cases I don’t bother with a link-back in the footer. I do this as a business decision for a few reasons which include the fact that I don’t maintain a plublically viewable portfolio. The reasons are simple, I don’t use Jared Ritchey Design as my primary site for business even though I do some freelance work on a personal level as a result. So its not my objective to rank for anything beyond the things I desire to blog about. That includes design. When I apply my new template to this blog, I wont be adding the "Design" part to the site name any further. It will just be the blog of "Jared Ritchey" the unusually usual opinionated designer type dude, or whatever. I started out in this business working for other firms and today, many years later, I’m still in the same business. I rarely do work for individual companies or website owners as most are publishers of templates or other products that they simply outsource to me. I’m a kind-of freelancer’s freelancer for lack of a better definition. A good majority of my clients are those who are webmasters, developers and third party vendors that outsource template design work or MLS integration with OpenRealty or WordPress or even Joomla which is my self proclaimed specialty. It should be obvious then that I really can’t expect some design firm outsourcing an OpenRealty template to me to allow my footer links in the final product. Nor could I ask a template club or hosting company that contracts me for 10, 15, 20 templates they plan on distributing to give me some sort of credit either. I’m in a unique business with little or no competition. I really don’t compete with designers and design firms or other types of real estate webmasters because of the nature of my business so the links are of little use to me. The UltimateIDX and others may approach the link-backs with the same caution even though the benefit of it is certainly coveted and expected to some degree. But they do it "differently"! I say "caution" in their respect only because they understand that it can be a detriment to a site that harbors site wide external links.

The methods being employed today by our team for UIDX is that we distribute free templates wherein the primary main page or home page template php-file has a design credit link-back by default and a no-follow link back upon request. What we had then done was changed this in the subsequent templates like the page.php or single.php as in the case of WordPress. Those links were certainly be external linksbacks as they are internal pages or internal to the sites as it were. There had been times we expirimented with making each of these links different depending on page or post and the results were simply no difference good or bad in all our tests. What the UltimateIDX had concluded after numerous sites was that they will no longer attempt to distribute alternative links in the individual template files and opt instead for a standard industry practice of just including a regular design credit link-back in the footer. It gets a little more creative as an offer is extended in the template use license to allow the removal of the site wide external providing an article about the template or some other interesting aspect is referred to in a dedicated post. Naturally the link would be required to be added linking back to their site. Its a fine line really if you think about it. The SERPS do not want any type of mechanical manipulation of links which this would not be, but they also do not want paid links which are certainly a dangerous practice. Could the license use option be considered a paid link of sorts? I said above that it is a type of pseudo payment or compensation for use of the theme but at this point I doubt it as such as its not technically a paid feature. This in addition to to the fact that there really doesn’t appear to be a way to abuse it. It certainly solves the "turn-key or boiler-plate" issue many SEO types believe is an issue for the site owner. I’ll place my money on this option being used by UIDX for free templates any day over other methods. In our newest releases all templates now have a new extensible tabbed options panel that includes footer link alternatives and one such being coded now is an option to point the link to an internal page, leave it as is, or remove it after submitting a donation to compensate for the development time. I’m eager for feedback on this practice as its not discussed nearly enough. For now I’ll leave the SEO stuff to the SEO’s and they can weigh in.

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