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How much value would these links actually give if they were followed? Just curious as they would be in the footer and would also lack relevancy as presumably websites would be getting designed for many many different companies in different industries.

A little bit of both.  I am browsing in the Q&A this morning. But, a friend of mine also emailed me to say that this would be a good question for me to chime in on.    Actually, the friend said, "This would be a good article for you to write!" not knowing that I already wrote one.

But I do have an IFTTT recipe that I use to alert me if someone asks about a penalty on Moz. It doesn't work perfectly, but I do get the occasional email prompt to come back and check out the Q&A.

I'm happy that my article was useful to you.  There really isn't a black and white answer to your questions, but I think that in most cases, provided you are not doing footer links on a massive scale and not overtly trying to manipulate Google, you should be ok to have followed links there.

Did you see any concrete penalties that a web development did get because of these links?

I have seen a few over the last 2 or so years. And I agree, there is absolutely nothing wrong with having a footer link, just don't use it as a link building tactic.

From a search engine view, wouldn’t this be a great way to determine what web development firm made what kind of websites?

No search engines are going to be bothered about that - all you want to do is use it as a link-building strategy, and you really shouldn't.

If it was legitimate, everyone would be doing it and Google wouldn't be so against them for these purposes.

However, if you want to go ahead and do this, then far be it from me to stop you

-Andy

Wow!   I was going to give my opinion on this topic, but I am going to shut up and just say.   Read Marie's article.  You will not find more comprehensive information from a person who is more qualified on the topic of link assessment.

^ Passing this along to my web dev team to start the discussion. Great stuff as always, Marie!

I wrote a really long article a while back that summarizes everything that Google has said about this type of footer link:

http://www.hiswebmarketing.com/footer-links-and-penalties/

I've also given my advice on the best way to get the benefits of your clients linking back to you without incurring a penalty.

I agree with you that this isn’t the only way you should be linkbuilding

No, it just should not even be figured into any linkbuilding. At best footer / sitewide links will do nothing (or very little) - at worst, if you are seen to gain too many, you could bring down a penalty.

Google specifically says that they don't want to see these sorts of links.

Create content, make it amazing and share it. Create interesting infographics or get creative and make people get interested.

Footer / Sitewide links isn't something I would ever advise anyone try to use as an effective tactic.

-Andy

1. Side wide vs homepage - Site Wide links should only be the top level categories and information pages like About Us or Contact Us

2. Follow vs nofollow - Follow = better, nofollow = still good.

3. Anchor text and descriptive text - Company Name + Web Design

4. Alternatives or extra link opportunities - Only legit and related sites!

Hi Bob

I am just speaking from the safety aspect - if you have site-wide links coming from multiple websites, however you want to handle it is upto you. I am just speaking from the experience aspect where a client had a large portion of their backlink profile were from development links.

Remember - you are inheriting potential low quality metrics from other sites if you leave links follow. If client sites have spammy metrics or backlinks themselves, you could potentially be attached to that. While it's unlikely your clients will build spammy links or black hat SEO, the possibilities are there, and I'd rather ere on the side of caution.

Just something to think about! Good luck!

That way, I think they are important for the promotion and SEO of web development companies.

Hi Bob,

No, these won't do anything for SEO in terms of link-building. Google isn't interested in footer links as something they want to see, but that doesn't mean it isn't worthwhile having there. There are benefits, but they aren't SEO. If someone likes a site and wants to see who developed it, for example.

If you want to create a good backlink profile, then you need good quality links in reputable sites. And don't worry if you see these as making up the majority of links for your competitors, it just means they don't know / haven't spent any time on building good links.

-Andy

Hi Bob

We actually ran into this issue as well. Here are my thoughts:

I personally don't see the harm in having a small "developed by" logo in the footer of sites you developed. It's promotion, you did the work, and I think search engines understand that. Now, that being said, I would ask that these links are "nofollow". The reason being, nofollow links are valuable, especially since these links can send you potential customers based on the work you created. Therefore, it's a valuable link. You're not doing this for SEO, you're doing this for potential business.

If you have it in the footer, don't put it anywhere else on the website.

If you are uncomfortable with this approach, you can ask the client puts it in their promotional materials announcing their new site launch: email, blog post / news article, social media, etc. Just a quick "Our new website, designed by ______ (nofollow - onsite)...".

That way you are still getting your credit and not running the risk of site-wide, but again, if you are doing one consistent logo in the footer that is nofollowed, you should be fine.

If you go the anchor text route - only your brand should be your anchor text. No "Website Development" or anything like that. Be branded.

Hope this helps! Good luck!