The role of detailed footers - Is there SEO Benefit?

[irldonalb]

Hi all,

I came across a thread on a UI website discussing the detailed footers that look like mini-sitemaps.

A lot of the UI experts on that site believe webmasters are doing it for SEO.

I’m not convinced it’s beneficial as it dilutes the link value. One of the examples has a sitemap with over 160 links in the footer of every page.

What’s the point?

Thanks
Donal

[edited by: tedster at 5:21 pm (utc) on April 23, 2009]

[tedster]

It really depends on the individual implementation. For example, the new design of whitehouse.gov uses this approach to show all the options in the hover menus at one viewing - and the new website desing there is showing significant increase in stasts.

However, PR dilution is something many so-called SEO experts don't consider (they should). There is also the chance of keyword cannibalism and even an over-optimization penalty.