Asking a web designer not to link themselves on your website - fair or unfair?

[moppu]

I'm in the process of hiring someone to redesign our website and during the contract phase found a provision that they will include a link to their designers page saying "Designed by X". A quick check of 10 companies in our field shows that 9 don't have that and the 1 that does is the worst of our bunch. I don't want to be a jerk about it since the designer is someone we use for other projects, but I also don't want a plug for their website on our website.

What do other business owners think, is this fair or unfair?

 

[sportmom]

@moppu As a developer, I have put it on some sites. Such hallmarks have to be subtle and are highly dependent on context. If the customer is comfortable with a little plug in the footer, and it is appropriate, that's nice. If not, NBD. No designer is getting enough traffic from footers to make it worth a fight.

If they feel strongly about it and you really don't want their brand on *your* website, maybe you could allow them to name drop your brand in *their* portfolio.

 

[stay_tattd4_lyfe]

@sportmom It's not about getting traffic; it's about backlinks to their site. The more sites linking to them, the better it is for SEO.

 

[nathansh]

@stay_tattd4_lyfe Especially important for local links if the designer is locally focused and works with local businesses.

 

[sannya]

@stay_tattd4_lyfe If that's the intent, would a link with invisible text or just 1 pixel accomplish that?

 

[bucknut200232]

@sannya Na, you'll end up getting a penalty from Google. This technique was killed a long long time ago.

 

[flyboy1818]

@sannya 10 years ago it did, don't know about now.

 

[stay_tattd4_lyfe]

@sannya Probably hurts more than it would help as it would be seen as SEO manipulation by search engines.

Better than that would be a link from anywhere, like a sitemap page or contact us page or something like that instead of the footer on every single page.

 

[rdenn14]

@stay_tattd4_lyfe PLUS I'd be more comfortable putting it on ONE page that might be relevant "about our partners" maybe?

 

[bucknut200232]

@stay_tattd4_lyfe It's about traffic/referrals and sometimes SEO for backlinks.

Backlinking isn't as easy as putting your link on any site and bam its good for SEO. Things such as relevancy, Domain Authority, and many others all come into play. The reality is that backlinks from basic websites or new ones that you just launched aren't going to do much in terms of SEO.

The referrals/traffic is good because you'll have people that like the design and want to find the person who developed it, or maybe the competitor likes the site and wants you to do one for them too.

 

[evangelismcoach]

@stay_tattd4_lyfe If you're not adding rel="nofollow" to the footer links, you may be actually harming your SEO. Google considers footer links to be link spam and may penalize you for it.

 

[ianf19]

@stay_tattd4_lyfe Not exactly, these kinds of links were devalued a couple years ago

 

[margaretkeyone]

@stay_tattd4_lyfe This works both ways. But whoever has more domain authority benefits the other more.

 

[israelisone]

@sportmom I don’t believe designers need permission to put projects in their portfolio

 

[dimpho]

@sportmom I could not agree more! Honestly, after 15 years I have literally only received about 5 referrals from the footer link. The best thing for me has been a testimonial, preferably video, especially now that smart phones can make it easy.

 

[gxh]

@moppu You are the customer in this case. I, as a web developer, am dedicated to delivering the product you want. You shouldn’t feel bad for requesting that the developer not put their link on your site.

 

[jeannine]

@gxh I agree with that. And it's rare these days to see a link to the web designer.