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[Pratik Dholakiya Contribution Level: 1]

I have been working on Widget marketing strategy. Currently I’m working on developing an open source widget with my developer. Once the widget will be installed in a website by a webmaster, it will provide a link back to my website. I’m planning to keep the link “hidden” in the source. Now I believe that once the widget will be made public, then lots of websites are going to integrate it in their websites. My question is; will there be any negative effect by the sudden increase in link popularity and will Google consider that “hidden” link as a Black Hat tactic?

[betsy czark Contribution Level: 2]

How old is your site? If it is a brand new site and this widget really is going to be blazing star on websites, then you might be sand boxed.

But if your website is a few years old, and the widget is a more likely (and I hope for your sake) a steady and growing presence on websites then it will be fine.

I think a hidden link is fine, but I would include a disclaimer about it to those who are downloading the widget.

[Richard Bravo Company: Life Force International Contribution Level: 9]

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Pratik if you're "hiding" links you are in direct violation of search engine webmaster guidelines.
And spreading that violation to your users via your widget is a terrible idea.

Not only do you run the risk of having your product and business labeled as malware and or banned as spam. But you are directly putting your customers at risk of the same consequences just by using your product.

If you're product is good then there's no reason to hide your developer credit link.
I use widgets all the time and almost all of them display their company link with pride.
For those that want to be really cool about it, they offer the site owner the option to display the link or not.

I would seriously rethink this "tactic" and base your model on integrity and practical standards as Ive mentioned above.

~RB
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[betsy czark Contribution Level: 2]

Richard,
Thanks for correcting my own comment to Pratik. I should have kept silent on it since I didn't know. I appreciate the knowledge you shared here.

[Richard Bravo Company: Life Force International Contribution Level: 9]

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Hey its all good Betsy - no sweat.
I only know what I know and there's a lot I don't know.
Strangely, this just happens to be a topic I dealt with in four different conversations today.

It's good to have you here

~RB
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[betsy czark Contribution Level: 2]

Thanks Richard.

I like your new photo. - Betsy

[PaulF french Contribution Level: 1]

I think a hidden link is black hat. Sudden increase in Link Popularity is a good thing, but a hidden link is very deceptive. They should perhaps put the link in the open and allow users to disable it instead.

[lawrence david david Contribution Level: 1]

Hi

Now Goolge only theme related with quality sites links only get first pages in the search results... So irrelevant it will affect your organic search results....

[Edwin Andres Arenas Taborda Company: Magnetic Sponsoring Contribution Level: 2]

Hi

Remember that Google penalized that you show a content to the users and another to the search engines.

You shouldn't hide the link, most software developers, even if it's the software is paid for, have a link back to the site. In fact in wordpress you usually have tons of links, to wordpress, to the theme, plugins, ...

There's no reason to hide the link and risk being marked by google

[Linda Albert Contribution Level: 1]

No I think it will not happen sudden increase in link popularity may does not change your rankings.