Cross linking my websites

Speculator

Hi there,

I have a number of consultancy websites, i.e. mortgages, property, invesments etc

Some sites perform quiet well and some dont, I was planning to cross link 2 of these sites i.e. putting a link at the end of the home page.

Would google view this negatively?

TsuDhoNimh

Speculator wrote: »

Would google view this negatively?

You're asking for a black and white answer to a question that has a million shades of grey.

If you want a general answer to all cases, then people in the industry that like to take a worst case scenario will always say "yes" (for those of us who take this kind of stance it's easier to give a 'slightly wrong' answer than having to spell out each and every caveat, nuance and exception) and those that don't like to caveat answers or throw in possible problems which may never occur will say "no". Neither is right and neither is wrong (or at least it can be argued that both are equally wrong), it really is a case of "it depends".

Technically, interlinking of sister sites like that can be a breach of webmaster guidelines. Given the limited background you've given us in this case, the only answer I'd feel comfortable providing is "Don't do it the way you're currently thinking about it".

You mentioned some sites doing well and some sites not (suggesting you want to flow link authority from the high performers to the low) and putting a link on the homepage (assuming this is the highest authority page on your site and will carry the most weight). Does this, in the absence of any other data, sound like an attempt at manipulating search rankings? Yes. Does it sound like you're doing it just for the search engines and not for the users? Yes. Is this exactly the type of scenario the search engines try and stop? Yes.

Instead, think about it from your users perspective. Is the link you produce between two sites you own adding value for them and providing them with a relevant resource? Is it in a logical place (e.g. are you linking to a poker site from a page about tigers)? If you didn't own the second site and weren't potentially gaining from the link, is it still something you'd consider linking to?

If you can answer 'yes' to all of those questions without hesitation, you're probably in a safe position to place that link.

From what you originally said, I'd suggest not just throwing it on the homepage and instead figuring out where it's of most relevance to your users. Forgetting about the webspam side of things for a moment, just consider it from a UX pov. You may end up with fewer users getting referred by the link, but the quality of the users (could be or) should be far higher and giving a better experience to those users.

It's not a question of "you can never interlink sites" (hundreds of thousands of sites do it everyday without issue) or "you can always interlink sites" (try setting up even a dozen sites with irrelevant links/sitewide links to unrelated content and see how long it lasts), it really does come down to the specifics.

If you're doing it for the search engines alone? Don't do it.
If you're doing it for the users? Do it.

bceltic

Speculator wrote: »

Hi there,

I have a number of consultancy websites, i.e. mortgages, property, invesments etc

Some sites perform quiet well and some dont, I was planning to cross link 2 of these sites i.e. putting a link at the end of the home page.

Would google view this negatively?

Google would not view this negatively if you're giving a reciprocal link between two websites you own. It's perfectly normally in my opinion to have two partner websites linking to each other, just look at the bottom of the page.