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I read somewhere that web designers' habit of placing a default "follow" link in the footer of their client websites is bad for SEO.
Is this true?
If so, should we use rel="nofollow" instead.
I have seen rel="designer" in some free WordPress themes.
What I tend to do is write a conditional (or do do it by hand if it's a static HTML site) so that on the home page it says:
<a href="http://mysite.com">My site</a>
but on all other pages it says:
<a href="http://mysite.com" rel="nofollow">My site</a>
That way you get the benefit of the link juice from the home page (which is usually the strongest page) which isn't then eroded by having a site-wide link.
Alternatively you could make the link live on the home page only, and on all other pages have it writen in static text: <p>Site by me</p> without a link.
As for the rel="designer", I haven't come across that before.
It is bad in context of Goolge's fighting with spam through "Penguin". This "Penguin" punishs for "site-wide" links.
My piece of advice for you is to use rel="nofollow". It will prevent you from any filter actions but leave your link available for users.
