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Where should "Powered by ACompanyName" appear in the website if there is a product webpage of the company and the product (logo) branding is already shown on the top left?

  1. Should I be placing the powered by ACompanyName logo along with the product branding logo on top?
  2. Should I place it somewhere with the footer elements? So the product logo and the powered by logo remain separate in the webpage in two different places.
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  • Why "Powered by" instead of a Credits (or Site Credits) link? As a designer, I ask for Credits links to ensure that others can find out about my work. It's far less obtrusive than putting my logo on each page. – David Apr 22 '14 at 15:42
  • @David The credits would work best when the site is not developed In-house. But as far as in-house development is concerned, they will be more worried about showcasing their company name on their product website, where the product website exists on its own and shared with clients. – Justin Samuel Apr 23 '14 at 7:06
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Powered by ACompanyName is old school and doesn’t provide any real benefit to the user. That said, there are still companies and consultants who discount their hosting or development services in exchange of the powered by statement. It can be treated like any other commercial placement, or a more sublime placement as in the footer.

This is subject of negotiation between you and the powered-by-company. However, if you don’t get any value from having it there, then lose it.

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    Not only is there no benefit to the user, I think it's also an SEO no-no. All those "Built By X Company" text that sometimes appear in the footer of websites are at best ignored and at worst the sites are actually penalised for including such boilerplate backlinks - as mentioned by Matt Cutts several years back – JonW♦ Apr 22 '14 at 8:46
  • @JonW Good Point! I can recall having heard the same some years ago. But if they get penalty for having it is hard to measure. I think the one receiving the penalty should be the "Powerd by" company for excessive in-linking. – Benny Skogberg Apr 22 '14 at 9:07
  • I think it all links into the 'guest blogging' spammy stuff that has been prevalent over recent years. Here's another Matt Cutts article from this year that talks about that. – JonW♦ Apr 22 '14 at 11:26
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Keeping it in the footer elements will keep the emphasis of the powered by statement prominent. Since the top of the page will consist of the product (logo) branding you can avoid another logo for powered by in the same estate.

The conventional habit of people while going through any product page (any webpage for that matter) is top to bottom, and it is highly likely that the user may be drawn to the details of the relevant products while skimming through the page. Hence keeping "powered by" at the trailing end of the page will bring the user's focus back to the company providing the products, which makes it intuitive.

By trailing end I mean bottom right corner of the page which the user is most likely to give a final glimpse after reaching the bottom of the page.

However if you have constant margins/"empty space" on the left/right/both sides throughout the web page you can also dock it to the bottom left/right corner of the screen. For the simple reason, if the user chooses not the go to past half of the page the powered by logo may go unnoticed. So for a docked logo, irrespective of the number of products the user views he/she will always see who is it powered by.

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  • Seems like a very good explanation from the 'User Experience' point of view. – Justin Samuel Apr 22 '14 at 7:32
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As I read above I notice that typically the footer is the appropriate place to put "Powered By Company". Although it may be an out-dated method I work with several companies that still value the "Powered By" style and usually it is place in the footer either in the center or to the right. However, there are companies who like it to be seen earlier in the site. Some companies enjoy having it in the top right hand corner, for example Top Right Powered By. This shows how it can actually not be a bad look by changing it up a bit.

I feel that in the end it really comes down to the overall layout of the site itself. Make it look good and customize to it's style.

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You have to be really careful with this, from an SEO perspective. Since Penguin came out last year, Google is especially hard on over optimization. Thus, if all of your "powered by" links are anchored in the ALT tag as "my awesome web design company" - you are actually going to flag your site right out of the results.

Here's what it looked like, and here's what happens. This is a real life example, being pulled from one of my clients SEMRush overviews.

enter image description here

Here there be dragons. Be very careful with it.

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    Probably because they were all followable and contained keywords as the anchor... We sometimes add credits on websites we build using a non obtrusive image tooltip in the footer which contains two links (one for powered by, one for developed by) and they are nofollowed apart from on the homepage. It works perfectly with no negative repercussions. – zigojacko Apr 23 '14 at 8:53
  • That's a good point Zigo, which goes right along with the idea of caution. If you nofollow the link, the search engines won't care. That makes it a humans only thing. – Imperative Apr 23 '14 at 18:24

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