Footer links and Google penalty
 

Footer links were once an effective way to unobtrusively increase rankings through keyword rich anchor text. Not anymore. Google has been cracking down on this practice for a while. However, that is not to say that footer should no longer be used on a website. When using footer links one should avoid raising red flags by using keyword-rich anchor texts. URLs, company names, and brands are probably safe, unless those names are rich in keywords that could trigger Google penalty.