When I design a website for a client I usually put a link back to my site at the footer of the page that says something like "Site by: Moore Web Exposure". Do most people put this just on the home page, or on the footer of every page? For SEO purposes would having just a single link back from the homepage carry the most weight or would it be best to put a link at the footer of every page on the site?

Thanks for the input!

As long as it is small, and fits in with the overall design of the page, I think having it on every page is a fine standard. Be up-front with the customer and set the expectation for them and you shouldn't have a problem. If you do a fine job, they should be okay with giving you some link-love.

The best option and you should forget about search engines for this and concentrate on REAL people.

Have a "Designer Profile" page (with clients permission of course) and link to that from every page. Have a brief description of your services on the page along with a link to your site.

Never forget you are marketing to REAL people NOT search engines.

I agree with Chris when it comes to realizing you're marketing to real people here. I've never tried the design profile page idea, though I do like it.

I've usually left a designed by link in the footer (with the client's permission) and I usually leave it on every page just because it's easiest for me to include it in the same included footer file.

When I comes to search engines site wide links don't seem to carry a lot of weight. Sure you're going to get credit for that site linking to yours, but it's unlikely you'd be getting credit for hundreds or thousands of links. I also think search engines are getting better at determining what part of the page a link comes from so they can weight links from different parts of the page differently.

My reasoning for adding the link is if someone likes the design I want them to know who designed it. If a search engine likes the links, great. If search engines don't like the link, no big deal.

Thanks for the quick replies, that is very helpful. I would agree that the link back is mainly for people, not search engines. I really like that idea about creating a designer profile page.

Thanks for the responses!

you can also add a note or a credit in your source....this way you are not taking away from your clients site.

If you are trying to improve your PR or BRAND i could see how this may help with exposure but I feel the tag in the footer is a bit imposing..