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I am a web developer and I am wondering if I should put my company's name in the footer of my client's websites.

I am doing this since I began and never had anyone asking if I would remove it. So I saw no problem, until...

on Webmasters.SE I saw someone saying that 'only amateuristic web developers put their company names in the footer of client's websites and that it's bad for SEO'.

  • Why is this 'amateuristic'?
  • Is the second statement true?
  • Should I offer some kind of 'branding removal' option?
William
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    The internet is full of opinions. You should have more confidence in your abilities than to let a single opinion shake the way you do things. Aside from this, it should really be the decision of your company to determine this. – Neil Sep 19 '14 at 12:36
  • @Neil True. But you know, maybe nothing is more true than that one opinion. – William Sep 19 '14 at 12:37
  • I think the general consensus is that if your webpage is impressive enough, you will hardly have to put your company's logo on it to get business, though I'd have no problem doing so and make the client pay more to leave it off. – Neil Sep 19 '14 at 12:41
  • @Neil Interesting. I must say that I never put my logo on a client's site, but just my company's name and a link to it's site. – William Sep 19 '14 at 12:44
  • @Neil - I would suggest telling the client you'll give them a discount if they include your name on the site and not charge them to keep it off. – JeffO Sep 19 '14 at 14:35
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    I see this question has been put on hold. I think this is a really good question, and could be made more objective by instead asking, "What are the pros and cons of including a link to a vendor's site on a client's site?" – Jason Swett Sep 19 '14 at 15:41
  • @JasonSwett See the edit. – William Sep 19 '14 at 15:53
  • @JasonSwett see What is the problem with “Pros and Cons”? – gnat Sep 19 '14 at 16:14
  • @JeffO Yes, of course, though if you charge 3.50 for something and 1.00 for something extra, it sounds unreasonable to a client. Charge 4.50 and "throw in a free gift", and the client loves you for it. Though you are probably more diplomatic than me. :) – Neil Sep 21 '14 at 10:14

3 Answers3

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Putting your company name on a client website provides no benefit for them, but might have negative consequences as it detracts from their content. It only has a benefit for you in form of free advertising.

Using their website (they paid for it, so it's 100% theirs now) to advertise for you is a service they provide for you, and it's a service you should pay them for.

You could charge them extra for removing your advertisement. However, it might be more palatable instead to offer a discount for clients which allow you to do this. In any case, this should be part of the contract you make with the client.

Philipp
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  • Rather than offering a discount to include the advertisement, I'd include the advertisement by default and offer a "premium" option which costs more and doesn't include your advertisement. – Jason Swett Sep 19 '14 at 15:05
  • And by the way, the reasoning behind my opinion there is that a client might not see himself as someone who "needs a discount". That might even be ever so slightly insulting. But if there's a "premium" option that's higher value, that might make the client feel important and feel like his business is a big deal. That's a valuable feeling for a vendor to offer a client. – Jason Swett Sep 19 '14 at 15:29
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Including your company name and website in the footer is a totally normal and common practice.

I think whether it's okay or not depends on the expectations you set in the beginning.

If you show your client a version of their website without your company name in the footer over and over again for 6 months and then when you go live you slap it on there, I can imagine the client being unpleasantly surprised that you did that, and I'd say justifiably so.

But if you somehow communicate to the client at the very beginning of the project that every website you do includes certain things, and one of those certain things is a link to your site, then that of course eliminates the possibility of surprise later.

I often offer my clients a "Chevy version", "Pontiac version" and "Cadillac version" of a project/feature/website I might build for them. I would recommend to you that you do this in general. Your Chevy version could include your advertisement and your Cadillac version could exclude it. (Offering multiple packages is a good idea anyway because it changes the question from should we proceed to how should we proceed, and it lets the client feel like they're in more control than if you offer a single take-it-or-leave-it package.)

So to answer your questions:

  • Is it amateuristic? If you sneak the link in hoping no one will notice, that's super amateuristic. If you include the link as part of a certain package and communicate the fact up front, then that's totally professional. Whether it's amateuristic depends not on whether you do it, but how you do it.
  • Is it bad for SEO? I'm not an SEO expert but I have a hard time thinking of how it might be bad for your SEO or the client's. I would bet money that it would be good for your SEO and have a negligible effect on your client's.
  • Should you offer a "branding removal" option? Yes, but I would position it by default as a line item in a package rather than a standalone option.
Jason Swett
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  • Thanks. Appreciated. http://i.gyazo.com/136adbc5c229780eabfe34cbac235aa6.png – William Sep 19 '14 at 15:35
  • That was fast! I wouldn't say "branding removal" or "no branding removal". I'd say "white labeled" and "not white labeled" or something like that. The reason is that you don't want your link to be seen as a bad thing that should be removed. You want the absence of your link to seem like an extra bonus. – Jason Swett Sep 19 '14 at 15:39
  • Thanks for the advice. I'll look into it after dinner ;) – William Sep 19 '14 at 15:51
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If you think that your actions may have an effect on the branding or reputation of your client (and this may well do) the professional approach is to ask the client their permission. If they don't know enough to be able to give you an informed decision then I would say that you are obliged to explain. If you don't know enough to make an informed decision then no. This is an opinion question though.

David Scholefield
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  • I'm not sure about the asking permission idea. If I were the client, I'd be asking what good it would do me to have a link to my vendor's site on my page. One way you could position it is that if your client helps you get referrals, you can spend more time focusing on helping your client and less time chasing new business. But for me I'd prefer to offer multiple packages, some of which include the link and some don't. – Jason Swett Sep 19 '14 at 15:26