Sitewide links and google

[lfgoal]

When it comes to sitewide links, it seems people get nervous due to the fear that sitewides might result in some sort of google penalty.

But consider this. If you start a blog on google's blogging service, blogger, and choose a template that allows for a links section, you are effectively giving sitewide links to whoever you put in your link section.

I have yet to see any indication that sitewide links gained as a result of a blogger blog (that's hosted on blogspot or simply published to another host) are in any way harmful.

Yet these are sitewide links, the thing we're supposed to be afraid of.

If google doesn't mind sitewide links being acquired in this way, what's the difference in getting them the old fashioned way, on a static non blog site? And should anyone be afraid of penalization?

[tedster]

I agree with you. There are many legitimate situations for sitewide links, so a true penalty is unlikely, just for this simple action. However, getting a link from every page of a 10,000 page domain will not give you the full backlink influence of 10,000 links, either. In fact, I doubt that it's much more influence than a single link on the Home Page.