For all you web designers and developers out there, what do you believe the value is of putting your link in the footer of all the websites you create? I’ve noticed that some web designers have good search engine rankings and upon checking their links, I’ve found the only links they have are the footer links on sites they’ve designed. Some of these designers have static sites that rarely change so I don’t think SEs are liking them for their fresh content.
I would think this can be pretty powerful linking but I’m not sure how Google views it. I’m sure Google can tell they are footer links and they are not contextual. Also, they will likely end up on being on tons of random sites that are not relevant to your business. So the unnaturalness of it has led be to wonder if it’s better to not do at all.
I know there are ways to make it a little more natural using different anchor texts, link titles, etc.
What do you all think about this?