SEO benefit of footer links 'debatable'

Footer links may not provide the boost to search engine optimisation (SEO) that marketers might believe they offer, an expert has said.

Rand Fishkin of the SEOmoz blog said that it used to be the case where using footer links for SEO held a certain amount of value.

Now they may be seen to do more harm than good - they tend to link to content that has already been linked to further up the page and could make the website exceed the maximum recommended number of links on any one page, he noted.

To make the most of such links, it is advisable to avoid keyword stuffing and take steps to ensure each links is as useful and relevant as possible, Mr Fishkin stated.

"Be smart about nofollows - nearly every footer on the web has a few links that don't need to be followed, so think about whether your terms of service and legal pages really require the link juice you're sending," he added.

According to the Quality Nonsense blog, eBay has placed a paragraph of text stuffed with keywords at the bottom of some of its website pages in an effort to boost SEO.