» May 9, 2008 in
When I first started building sites there were many people that said you shouldn't link your websites together, and if you do then do it with caution.
Back in the day spammers would love linking tons of sites together.
As time went on some blog networks were showing up and linking dozens of sites together without much ill effect.
I've successfully made my own little network of up to 15 sites and it didn't seem to hurt anything.
However I still wonder, will linking my sites together ever hurt me in the search engines? Will google flag me as a spammer? And if yes, at what point?
What's the current opinion on whether or not to link your sites together?
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Amino says on May 10, 2008
For me, I don't mind linking them together within the normal standard conventions, aka I would post an entry introducing the new blog on my other blog, allow comments, etc. This way, it isn't really spam, at least not in the sense of direct, empty content links. For example, my blog is new, and I did link it to some of my old blogs.
James Mann says on May 10, 2008
I guess I follow the old rule of not linking all my sites together from each domain.
Instead I make a circular motion with my sites,linking site A to B, site B to C, site C to A and D
I just try not to link directly as a reciprocal type link.
Googlelady says on May 10, 2008
Let me tell you my recent story on what happened. When I first created the case study on How to Make Money Online in 3 months (You can find it here: http://www.googlelady.com/guides/ ) I linked http://www.couponcodesmall.com The result? Google added this site to their "Sandbox" and one month ago it was out and then again in their index after some sites linked to CCM. If you want my suggestion will be: If you want to link between your sites you have to be indexed in Google and then it will not hurt but also will not give any value to the backlink. If the site is new and you link it, then it will hurt. Hope it helps (Based on Experience).
Richard Callaby says on May 10, 2008
I think linking highly relevant sites together can only help and that is what I have been doing. If the sites do not have anything in common then I do not link to them. I also only try to get links from my niche as I think in the long run those links will be more valuable then just some random links. So only link highly relevant sites together and you should be just fine. Also make sure that your sites are not spammy in that they have relevant content that actually answers peoples questions.
Lord Matt says on May 10, 2008
I put lots of links where the readers of one site would be interested in another. I link all the time when that is the case. Other times I give passing mentions. I seem to be doing okay.
(BTW I'm now following you on twitter).
Craig T says on May 10, 2008
With all the research I have done, I did find out that if all your sites come from the same or similar IP address, it may not help and possibly hurt you. There is no proof that it hurts as long as all the sites have relevance and original content.
Frank C says on May 10, 2008
I've been trying to do a more sophisticated clustering technique on my sites (look up FLAME Clustering on Wikipedia). Essentially this means linking sites based on their keyword related-ness and having some nexus/transitional hubs that link between different types of site 'neighborhoods'.
I think as long as the linking looks and is, for the most part, natural and relatively small there won't be a problem. The problem comes up when you have a site about, for example, pets, pointing heavily to taboo or 'bad neighborhood' sites or hundreds of obviously auto-generated thin sites pointing to one site.
Esoomllub says on May 10, 2008
I link sites of mine only if they are directly on topic, and only on the rare occasion if they can generally be considered somewhat related. Meaning, I generally link my food/cooking/recipe related sites, but not of them link with a dating affiliate site that I maintain. The exception is my overarching company generally has links for the SEO service I provide on all of my sites, and many client sites.
Marc says on May 10, 2008
I link my sites that are thematically related and always have without any problems from Google. I characterize related sites into constellations. A group of related sites well interlinked, but in addition some of those sites might be tangentially related to some other sites in other constellations that I have, so they are less tightly linked. All my sites are connected with certain degrees of separation. Also with some of the sites, although they may be related, I don't necessarily want the casual user to see a connection between them. This includes some of my competitors whose counterintelligence methods don't go far beyond casual observance.
45n5 says on May 10, 2008
between these thoughts here (thanks ;) and the youtube comments
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZW30bMtCgs
I think there is no current consensus on linking your sites together
BANS blog says on May 10, 2008
Personally I link if they are related in some aspect. I think Google would frown on a foreclosure site linking to a comic book site. Id rather just trade links with like sites and be done with it that way. Of course directories are all over the board, but I try to stay as white hat as white hat can be and ask myself what Google would really think of me linking non related sites to each other.
gene says on May 11, 2008
well my five cents:
look at the bottom of this webpage
http://www.geeksugar.com/1619250
it's what I'm calling massive interlinking :)
and seems they don't mind to be cought by g00gl
