Skip to content
Gravity Search Marketing
  • Why Gravity
  • Services
  • Contact Us
Ask the Experts: SEO for Web Developers – Will My Idea Work? ask the experts

Ask the Experts: SEO for Web Developers – Will…

  • August 6, 2007
  • by Gradiva Couzin

Q: I’ve noticed those little links at the bottom of websites that say “Website design by designersName.com”. I take it that those links are meant to improve search engine ranks?

Do you think this would be a better idea: Have the link at the bottom of the customer page point to an actual page on the customer’s site that is dedicated to you, the designer, and have a few hundred words of body text with relevant page titles, keywords, the whole sha-bang with links pointing to your site. What do you think of this? This would work a lot better than just the little link at the bottom of their page, wouldn’t it?

A: While we don’t have data, our guess is that the primary benefit of those links at the bottom of a client’s website is so that a visitor will say, “Oh, this is a cool site. Who built it?” and then follow the link to the designer’s site. Will this link provide search engine benefit? Yeah, a little bit, especially if you design lots of sites. But watch out: those sites aren’t going to be topically related to your website (how many of them are about web design?), so they aren’t going to deliver much search engine benefit.

Now, thinking about your Better Idea, where you get your own page on a client’s site. Sorry, we can’t give it the thumbs up, and here’s why:

Assuming you can get past the (probably substantial) obstacle of getting a client to agree to adding a whole page praising their web designer, we still don’t think that one page will be enough to make this seem like a truly relevant link in the eyes of the search engines. Google, for example, is not just looking at single pages to determine relevance, but rather the whole giant interconnected world of links and categories of information. Also, any human viewer (and Google has plenty of these on staff, too!) would be able to ascertain that this type of link is essentially a paid link. So our guess is that Google and the other search engines will think of the links coming from this type of page as having very little importance.

Also we’re a little worried about the potential for duplicate content. If you have a text-heavy page on someone else’s domain that contains very similar messaging to your own site, it won’t be good for your own search engine presence. Since it would function more like a landing page than an ad, we think it’d be best to keep that messaging – and the traffic that comes to read it – on your own website. After all, you’d hate to eventually find yourself competing with your own ads!

On the other hand, we suppose we can envision a scenario in which the tactic you suggest might be useful. Picture this: your client is a well established, authority site with great ranks, while your own website is having some sort of terrible problem (perhaps some previous spam has you in a rankings pit that you are working on climbing out of). If you aren’t visible at all in the search engines, you could approach your client as a sort of “host” for your one-page self-promotion. If you have a client who’s that nice, you’d better be prepared to send a nice holiday basket this year.

Thanks so much for the idea, and we encourage you to keep them coming! Experimentation is a valuable part of any SEO campaign.

Ask the Experts: Will Google Penalize Me for Building Links Too Fast? ask the experts

Ask the Experts: Will Google Penalize Me for Building…

  • March 29, 2007
  • by Jennifer Grappone

Q: I have a business selling big and tall men’s coats online. I was going to start attempting to build some links as suggested in your book but it was suggested to me that if I managed to get too many links, that my site may get Google sandboxed as it is only 1 year old and may look suspect.

Could you tell me if this is maybe correct, and if so what speed should I try to get links added. My friend suggested 1 a week.

A: It’s true that there are penalties for websites building a lot of links in an “unnatural” way in a short time, but we don’t think this would be an issue for someone in your situation. We think this problem most often applies to spammers, scrapers, or people who own hundreds or thousands of domains and work to build status by interlinking between them. Your site contains real, unique content and a legitimate product, and should be able to build links naturally without any problems on the search engines.

If you are concerned that you’re building links too fast (that’s a pretty nice problem to have!), just be sure that they’re coming from a wide variety of types of sites (that is, they are not all from within comment postings, or bulletin boards, instead, they are a mix of blogs, social bookmarking sites, static sites, etc.), and most importantly, that as many links as possible are from sites that focus on similar content to your website. Keep your focus on the overall site quality and the relevance to your target audience and it’s very unlikely there will be any penalty.

Posts pagination

1 2 3 4 5
Who We Are
Gravity Search marketing is led by SEO industry veteran and author Jennifer Grappone in Los Angeles. The company was founded in 2006 following the success of the book Search Engine Optimization: An Hour a Day (Wiley, 2006, 2008, 2011), which Jennifer co-authored. Gravity’s clients include Fortune 500 companies, global entertainment brands, niche B2Bs, large and small retailers, and nonprofits.
Our small, talented California-based team specializes in SEO, advertising, analytics, and online brand visibility. Senior Technology Manager Andrew Berg, who joined Gravity in 2009, elevates the company’s technical SEO expertise to an elite level.
Deeply dedicated to our clients’ success, we’re known for clear communications, effective SEO guidance, and a commitment to transparency and ethical business practices.

Get in Touch

Get An Effective SEO Strategy

Most of our business comes through word of mouth from happy customers. We work with clients who have what it takes to make the project a success: intelligence, openness to new ideas, a commitment to communicating with us regularly, and a workflow that allows us to work with you effectively.

Contact Us
  • Home
  • Why Gravity is Different
  • Services
  • Books
  • Contact Us

Women-Owned Small Business (WOSB)

Gravity is an SBA-Certified WOSB

NAICS Codes:

  • 541613 Marketing Consulting Services
  • 541810 Advertising Agencies
  • 541820 Public relations agencies
  • 541990 Other Professional Services
  • 611430 Professional and Management Training
Gravity Search Marketing LLC - A Full-Service SEO Company
Los Angeles • San Francisco
Copyright © 2024 All Rights Reserved
Theme by Colorlib Powered by WordPress