Member Avatar for Babra

can someone explain to me what are sitewide links
heard that they negatively affect rankings

lets say i have a website xyz and abc
i then put links on every page on abc for the site xyz
is a sitewide linking with reference to seo linking say one page of a site on all pages of another website
what if i put different pages of a site on another website
will google still view this as sitewide

i.e i have xyz.com and abc.com
scenario 1
i put the page xyz.com on every page of abc.com

scenario 2
ie put 10 different pages from xyz.com on abc.com each on differnt page of abc.com as in
xyz.com on abc.com
xyz.com/1.html on abc.com/1.html e.t.c

does google penalize you with the sitewide link penalty or is it different

Edited by Babra
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Dani AI

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Sitewide links = the same link (or the same set of links) appearing via a site template — usually in a footer, sidebar, header or a widget. They are not automatically “bad,” but intent and pattern matter: editorial/functional sitewide links (copyright, platform credits, logical navigation) are normally fine, while large-scale, paid or templated links placed to pass ranking credit are treated as link‑scheme risk. (developers.google.com)

Answering the two scenarios from : scenario #1 (one xyz URL added to every page of abc) is a classic sitewide/footer link. Scenario #2 (different xyz pages linked from different abc pages) is less likely to be treated the same — provided each link is editorial and added on a per‑page basis. If those links are injected by the same template/widget across many pages, Google still sees a patterned/template signal and may discount or scrutinize it. This is why context — as said — is the deciding factor, and why widgets/templates have been singled out by Google as risky when used to distribute links at scale. (developers.google.com)

Practical, safe rules (short): use branded or neutral anchor text rather than repeating exact‑match money keywords; mark paid placements with rel="sponsored" (or rel="nofollow" as a fallback); mark forum/user-contributed links with rel="ugc". Google treats these attributes as hints that clarify link intent, which reduces the chance links will be treated as manipulative. Example markup: 

<a href="https://xyz.com" rel="sponsored">XYZ</a>
<a href="https://example.com/article" rel="ugc nofollow">Example</a>

Use these consistently when you control the source site. (developers.google.com)

If you inherit sitewide links pointing at your site and suspect trouble, check Search Console’s Manual Actions report first. If a manual action for “unnatural links” exists, attempt removals and qualification (add rel attributes) and document outreach; use Google’s disavow tool only after documented removal attempts and only as a last resort. Keep an audit of anchor text distribution and limit templated external links. (developers.google.com)

(Short checklist: avoid keyword‑stuffed footer links; prefer branded anchors; tag paid/UGC links; monitor Search Console; document any cleanup.)

Recommended Answers

All 9 Replies

Member Avatar for tdrosiadis

Sitewide links are links that appear the same in every page of a site.
In nowadays SEO nothing is goog or bad by itself. Its how you use it to determine if is good or bad. If the sidewide link is natural then everythiing is OK. If the reputation of your and the other site is good then also is OK. If you have purchased links the that is bad (depending of how ofthe and in what extend you do so).
Your 2nd senario seems to be more SEO correct.

Member Avatar for Kelly Burby

Well, the best things you can do is go through this post over the Search Engine Watch I am pretty much sure it will help you in clearing your doubt about what actually site wide links is and are all of then unnatural.

Member Avatar for Piers Rollins

The links which are displayed on the every pages of the website are generally referred as sitewide links. Mostly these links are placed at the footer or sidebar of a website.

Member Avatar for WebOutGateway

Hi!

Sitewide links are links that are present on every page of your site. These links are often placed in the footer or sidebar of your site and they can be present anywhere. There is no rule that sitewide links are bad, you can look on Google's Webmaster Help.

Member Avatar for daniwebfan2009

I just found out yesterday that Google does not like external sitewide links, but this preference has been around for years. Here's the official documentation:

Member Avatar for Prosper_2

when implementing sitewide links vary the position u place the links & also vary the title they will look more natural that way

Member Avatar for larryholley

No, itwill never affect the ranbking of your website. If you putyour website's link in every page's footer means, then it will never affect your website's ranking in any means and terms.

Member Avatar for advent_geek

, is credit link is same as sitewide link?

Member Avatar for almostbob

place <meta name="author" content="me"> where me is of course you, in the <head>, we are all using php asp etc so this is only a single edit
If the authors of abc and xyz match bots do not consider the sitelinks to be external, eg KFC and TacoBell links

left over from google's, now ended, rel=author google+ experiment

it also matters how the link is generated, a sidebar automa bla bla blah,,,,,
read Kelly's link, its better

Edited by almostbob
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