Credit for site design

[DXL]

Whenever I design a site, I make sure to put "site design by mycompany" with a link back to my company's website. None of my clients have ever had a problem with this.

I was glancing at a site I designed a few years ago, and noticed that the client had someone make a few minor text and content changes, but the layout was unchanged. Whoever updated his site removed my credits entirely. They didn't replace the credits with anything else, though.

I would imagine that ultimately its up to the client what they have or don't have on their site, but it seems odd they took my site credit off like that. I haven't heard from this client in years (despite trying to email him in the past), does anyone have any experience similar to this? Should I just say "oh well" and move on?

[bill]

I find these sorts of links quite annoying actually if they're on every page of a site. One link on the about this site page might be OK, but on every page of a site it serves no purpose to the client company. In my corporation I've set up a standard global policy to forbid this sort of linking at the very outset of any website design project outsourced.

[Jack_Hughes]

I think they are completely within their rights to remove the link. As you were (I assume) an external contractor the client is likely to own the copyright to the site so can do as they please.

I don't like ROS links such as these and ensure that any work we have done does not include them as part of the initial agreement. I also make sure that copyright is expressly held by us too. Removes any possible ambiguity that way.

[bobothecat]

Should I just say "oh well" and move on?

Yep...

[Harry]

Personally, I find designers and developers who do that to be unprofessional. Unless you're doing a favour to your customer don't put it. That's why people have portfolio pages on their site.

[benlieb]

I have the following in my contract: "Developer may put an unobtrusive byline on the bottom of Client's site establishing design, development, and maintenance credit. Byline will remain until significant design changes have been made by another entity."

And I truly mean unobtrusive.

This way it's in the contract. If they don't like the idea, then they'll tell you before they sign and you'll have to take it out or refuse the gig.

It's good for everyone in my case, because I have certain "referal incentives" in place.

[D_Blackwell]

I have not linked myself from the site of any client in a long time, and now have a policy of declining links that are offered. A single personal referral from a very satisfied site owner is worth more than any link(s).

I never saw any substantive benefit from having such links, and actually declining them has turned out to be a pretty good tool for helping to gain a professional perception in the owners' mind.

[grandpa]

The closest I come to a credit would be a line similar to "For questions or comments regarding this website contact..." followed by an e-mail address that I will check. This is primarily for those people who are nice enough to let me know something is broken. But my one client saw my work on a site and actually called the contact phone number, which eventually got back to me.

[ken_b]

I look for and click on those designer credit links all the time.

When I get a link request, I like to see who the site links to, and quite often I look to see who the linked to sites link to.

If the requestors site is especially well designed, I like to see the designers site. You never know when you might need a good designer. Or might want to refer one.

[mcjohnson]

I'm actually in the process of removing those byline links from my earlier clients' websites. I used to put it on there, but when you provide your client with a 3rd party CMS and they change all the text to bright orange, blue and huge, sometimes you don't want credit anymore.

I have never had a phone call from that segment of my advertising. Word of Mouth, a little bit of Yellow pages, and I'm booked like a beast.

So all new sites are launched without.

[D_Blackwell]

sometimes you don't want credit anymore.

(Really can't add to that. Wish I'd said it myself.)

[rocknbil]

Ask yourself this: how much work do you actually get from those links?

I'm embarrassed to say I used to ask for them, but now I realize they look rather amateurish, on the same level as "This site optimized for XYZ Browser."

[moltar]

A single personal referral from a very satisfied site owner is worth more than any link(s).

Gold words!

If you really want to prove your design, then use meta tags to embed your company and URL.

[stever]

>> Ask yourself this: how much work do you actually get from those links?

Guess it depends on your niche (and your level of confidence in your design skills).

I agree with ken_b's point. I look at other designers all the time and I know that some of my clients have come to me because they saw other sites of mine that they liked.

I actually knock a bit off the bill to get the "advertising" on there (subtle and only on the front page), so both sides are happy and it's an honest transaction.

[Herb75]

nobody seems to mention the link popularity factor. i agree that these should not be on every page, but it is definately a factor in seo.

ie statcounter.com

[mcjohnson]

they look rather amateurish, on the same level as "This site optimized for XYZ Browser"

ah, the good old days. Who could forget the top-site award gifs, the blue "free speech on the 'net" ribbons, hit counters, animated horizontal lines, and flames flanking the banner of some black and red rock and roll site?

[trillianjedi]

nobody seems to mention the link popularity factor

They probably don't want the SE traffic. In that business nor would I.

TJ

[Gero_Master]

I use an hidden tag in the HEAD section. It's cool, invisible and i dont know, but if search engines read the a href link in the comment tag as an link, it increases link popularity.

[Feydakin]

We go both ways.. For clients that are using a transaction based model we put in a 'powered by' tag and for those that just pay us outright we add a comment tag in the header of the autohandler..

It just depends on the client and the site..