Link position describes where on the linking page a link appears: inside the main content, in navigation, in a sidebar, in an author bio, or in the footer. SEOs generally assume a link in the main body, surrounded by relevant text, carries more weight than one in boilerplate. Google has published patents on weighting links by likely user behavior, but it has not documented how position affects ranking today.
The common view
The reasoning is that search engines want to count links a reader is likely to notice and click. Body links that an editor placed in context fit that description. Boilerplate links repeated on every page, or tucked into footers, are less likely to reflect a specific endorsement.
This idea is supported by Google patents describing a "reasonable surfer" model, in which links are weighted by how likely a user is to follow them. A patent shows what Google explored, not necessarily what it uses, so treat it as supporting evidence rather than confirmation.
Positions you will see in tools
Some backlink tools classify links by position, which helps when reviewing a profile.
- In-content or contextual links in the article body
- Navigation and header links
- Sidebar and widget links
- Footer links, often sitewide
- Author bio and byline links
- Comment and forum signature links
How to use the idea
When you have a choice, ask for links where readers will see and use them. A link in the step of a tutorial that recommends your tool is more useful to the reader than a mention in a bio. That is also where referral traffic comes from, which you can measure directly.
Example
Two guest contributions
An illustrative API testing tool, Probegate, contributes two articles to industry blogs. In one, the editor keeps a link to Probegate's open-source test runner in the body, where it illustrates a step. In the other, the only link is in the author bio. Over the following months, the body link sends a steady stream of visitors and the bio link sends almost none.
Common mistakes
Forcing links into body copy
Inserting a link where it does not help the reader is the pattern Google's guest posting warnings describe.
Questions
Not worthless, but generally assumed to carry less weight, and widely distributed footer links can be a spam signal.
