Footer links and Google penalty

[Gaastra]

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.