Grantastic Designs’ Blog

There’s one thing I still see on a lot of web sites created by design firms that’s a big usability “don’t”. Web development people: DON’T insert a link on the footer of the home page to your own company site.

There are three big reasons for why this is wrong to do:

• There’s no benefit to the client, period. Placing a link to another company is like an unpaid, unrelated advertisement. It distracts the audience from the site they’re already on.

• It cheapens the user’s experience. Visitors are not interested to know who the site’s designer is, any more than they would be interested to know who the copywriter is, or the search engine marketer, the hosting company, etc.

• It cheapens the designer. A link on the home page footer signifies to more and more people today that it’s a tired strategy by someone with an amateurish sense of enhancing their own link popularity at the client’s expense. While naïve or uncaring designers may think it might get their brand out there for prospective clients, the message really sent is that the designer is willing to put their own interests ahead of their clients when it comes to the web site’s performance.

I’ve been doing website designs professionally since 1997, and not once have I ever requested my company’s name on a client site. If they offer it, I tell them if they feel its truly relevant to their audience to be referred to what we offer, they should be make it particularly relevant by including it on a separate links and resources page, or even a testimonials page; but NEVER on the home page.

The best way web designers can use their client’s websites to promote themselves is to feature a client portfolio left on their own site, with simple screenshots and descriptions of the work performed. More web designers and developers need to better respect both their clients and their client’s audiences, and start with thinking only of what’s best for their client by preventing all unrelated links, including their own.