What is a footprint in SEO? 4 signs to recognize one and how to use it

Footprint in SEO is a term familiar to SEO people, often blamed when a whole network of websites is penalized by Google and drops in rankings at once. That makes many people wary, but in fact a footprint isn't entirely negative. If you understand it properly, you can still use it to optimize your network more effectively. So What is a footprint in SEO? how can you recognize it and use it properly? Let's MONA Media find out right now in this article.

What is a footprint?

Footprint (digital footprint) is the traces left behind while building a network of websites, which let Google detect attempts to manipulate its algorithm. Many SEOers believe footprints are why websites drop in rankings or get hit penalized by Google en masse. So they try to hide or “disguise” the network to avoid being recognized. However, not everyone understands what a footprint really is and how to control it effectively.

Put simply, it's like footprints in the sand: if you repeat an over-optimized behavior (for example: the same IP, identical themes, backlinks in the same pattern…), Google will notice that “footprint” and treat it as unnatural behavior.

As you can see, a footprint in SEO isn't always bad. What matters is using it in a controlled way, so Google doesn't flag you, while safely maximizing the strength of your website network.

Signs that reveal a footprint

One of Google's important algorithms is the footprint algorithm. A website can be pushed down in rankings by Google or even suffer other penalties. So you need to know the signs of a footprint to avoid triggering one by accident.

• The business's backlink pointing back from websites that all use the same provider Hosting. For example, if 10 websites all share 1 host, Google will find it easily.
• Backlinks pointing back from sites with the same IP address.
• Websites that share 1 source code and theme. For example, if you have 10 websites using the same theme, you're overdoing it. Google will understand that you are creating these sites for another purpose, not for users. If sites like that get hit by a footprint, don't be too surprised.
• Websites registered with the same owner information.

Be extremely careful with the signs above to avoid Google detecting a footprint, especially with satellite sites.

How to use footprints most effectively

Having read this far, you may think footprints are a nuisance and entirely bad, so you must avoid them at all costs. In practice, though, beyond those drawbacks, footprints have their own upsides that SEOers should know and use to get closer to their goals.

When you need to use a footprint

You don't always need to think about avoiding a footprint when doing SEO, and in many cases you'll need one. That is when you want Google to detect and recognize what you are trying to do.

When doing SEO for a new website, many people have ideas and want to grow a brand.

• To do this, you need to create a website with fully registered information, including address, company name, field of operation and phone number.
• Next, create social media accounts that register the same information you just gave the website. This information needs to match.

When you create identical information like this, Google will certainly notice something unusual: you are deliberately leaving a footprint.

• In that case, although your site has a footprint, it's a good thing, because Google has established that these accounts were created by you and that this information entirely belongs to you.
• Address, brand and phone number information appearing in many places will help your business address SEO rank on Google Maps. That information may also appear higher in organic search results.

In this case the footprint helps you build brand credibility, and your business address shows up right on the search page without users needing to visit the website.

When to avoid footprints

For anyone doing SEO, nobody wants to get tangled up in Footprint cho website or have their social accounts affected. But if you use shady behavior or tricks to boost your rankings, Google may well detect a footprint.

For example, to optimize a website, you often create a whole batch of satellite sites, then build out content on them to send backlinks to the main site and raise PageRank. But if Google detects the satellite sites, they not only fail to help the main site, they also hurt the SEO progress of your main site.

Google penalties if a footprint is detected

• At the mild end, Google only devalues those backlinks. This penalty works as a warning from Google about what you have been doing.
• More seriously, Google penalizes the main site and stops it from rising in rankings for a set period. You then have to fix things and re-optimize the network, which takes a lot of your time and effort.
• The worst case is that the whole network of satellite sites is taken down, which means all the effort and time you invested counts for nothing. So think carefully from the very start about how to grow satellite sites as naturally as possible.

When people talk about Footprint in SEO, everyone wants to avoid it as much as possible. But after reading this article, MONA we hope you understand that a footprint doesn't only have drawbacks, it has advantages too. So learn to use this information to serve your SEO website as well as possible. If you want the best SEO solution for your website, contact MONA for advice, detailed SEO quote detailed plan.