What Are Sitewide Backlinks?

When you first begin focusing on your website’s SEO, many terms are thrown at you left and right. One term you need to become familiar with is a sitewide link. Sitewide links play a huge role in the SEO of your page. They can help or harm your optimization, depending on how the backlinks are used.

In the simplest terms, sitewide backlinks are those that appear on most if not all of your website pages. For example, your sidebar or blogroll links are considered sitewide links since they are theoretically posted on all of your website’s pages.

Of course, there’s a lot more to know about sitewide backlinks and how they work. Keep reading to learn more about sitewide backlinks below.

Table of Contents

What Are Sitewide Backlinks?

A sitewide backlink is a link that appears on most, if not all, of your website’s pages. Although sitewide backlinks are incredibly helpful, it’s important that you know how to use them effectively. If not, you could end up having a spam risk on your hand with the use of sitewide links.

More specifically, sitewide backlinks almost always have the biggest spam footprint. Seasoned SEO professionals understand the risks associated with sitewide backlinks and are able to use these backlinks strategically as a result.

Sitewide Backlink Examples

The most common example of a sitewide backlink is footer links. Footer links are one of the riskier forms of sitewide backlinks because they are the most commonly abused. Google is very skilled at picking them up as likely paid links, which makes them appear as spam.

Another form of sitewide backlink is the sidebar or blogroll links. These are lists of links located on the sidebar of every page on your site. Depending on how blogrolls are used, they can actually be more dangerous than footer links simply because footers have limited space, whereas blogroll lists are vertical and practically have no limit. If there are too many links, blogroll links can be tacked as spam.

Recap

Once again, a sitewide backlink is one that is found on every single page of your website. Footer links, sidebar links, and blogroll links are the most common forms of sitewide backlinks. It’s important that you use these backlinks carefully, or else your site may pop up as spam.

Still, sitewide backlinks are helpful in the right context. Contact a seasoned SEO professional to learn how to use sitewide backlinks effectively without as much risk of spam detection.