Again on "Design by" in footer. Sharing my experience & question.

I'm reading a lot on this matter, and I get mixed ideas. Field tests are difficult to monitor: in the long run, other factors enter the equation...

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So, as many designers/webdevs, I have the urge (difficult to resist) to put an un-intrusive link to my company websites. As an author signing their work, or a brand branding their apparel or devices or cars, I don't see anything wrong with this. Clients are informed before hand, and they have the faculty to pay a surcharge for white label or bring their business to other.

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To the ingenuous questions: are this links needed? do they help my company? The answer is yes. They help me get straight to people I would probably not reach elseway, even before they start searching actively on Google for services that ma (or my competitors) are ranking for.

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To the questions: do they help me ranking? This I dont know. I luckily have good contents, and good local reviews. In a way or the other, we are almost always first places.

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Except for the words I put in footers. I know that links in footers might be penalized, that's why we usually go like this:

• footer link with FOLLOW in the Clients' homepages, with a few organic keywords
• same footer link in all the remamining Clients' internal pages, wit NOFOLLOW, with the same organic keywords
• organic keywords are not the same across all sites. Usually they are on the like "Designed by MYCOPANY - web sites for BUSINESS CATEGORY in CITYNAME"
• Around 250 sites (good sites, I might add) are following this scheme. 85% are sharing the same IP (different virtualhosts of coruse). Remaining vitals of each website are good-to-excellent (performance, Clients' contents, mobile UX, ...)

So, what would be preferable, and why? I think of the following options:

1. Continue more or less with what i'm doing: i want a way for my clients' clients to reach my website.
2. Heck it: like 1, but put FOLLOW in all links (this I'm pretty sure it's bad)
3. Change the link in a more generic "Credits" link to an internal page in Clients websites, where I'll put the backlink "Designed by MYCOPANY - web sites for BUSINESS CATEGORY in CITYNAME" to my website
4. Like 3, but instead of writing "Credits", i'll use the "Designed by MYCOPANY - web sites for BUSINESS CATEGORY in CITYNAME" as anchor text to said internal page.
   

Ideas? suggestions? considerations?

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from Search Engine Optimization: The Latest SEO News https://www.reddit.com/r/SEO/comments/pz5e4v/again_on_design_by_in_footer_sharing_my/>