Interlinking between sister sites

[baldidiot]

If you have a series of related sister sites (eg: niche sites for roulette, blackjack, video poker etc...) on the same server & IP, what is the verdict on linking between them?

The sites will be clearly related so it's not like I'm trying to hide anything, and the linking is more for traffic and branding purposes rather than SEO. But will the big G realise that, or think something funkys going on?

[Assafros]

Well, as long as you not trying to hide your links, or over link your sites, the big G won't punish you and will give you some credit for it. Don't expect to get full credit as you would have got if those sites were not related.

[baldidiot]

That's kind of what I figured, thanks mate.

[davemerry]

I always interlink between my sites, although I try and make it as natural and brand related as possible to avoid any suspicion of a sinister linking network which is gaming search engines.

For example, I'd link to livecasino.co.uk with the anchor 'livecasino.co.uk', any sales text to encourage the click through is placed before.

I probably over think the repercussions, but the thought of having my network banned because of a few inter-network links doesn't warrant the risk IMO! Any anchor text value would probably be devalued anyway as Google will almost certainly know both sites are owned by you...

[JeffKean]

so your an affiliate and an AM, interesting

[MichaelCorfman]

My view is that cross-links between related sites can be very valuable. As individual links they probably are not as valuable, but at least in our case we have large numbers of them, and my perception is that the cumulative effect is very substantial. We do always cross-link when the links are relevant, so our cross-links are definitely meaningful and not just link spam to trick search engines. And in our case we do not avoid using relevant anchor text. I view that providing relevant anchor text that is consistent with the target page of a link is something that should be considered a sign of a relevant link to the extent search engine ranking algorithms are able to evaluate that information.

Michael

[GaryTheScubaGuy]

Put them on individual c-class servers and preferably each in its targeted geographic location. Use GPS metas and google geotargeting for each.

I'm not saying what you are proposing isn't beneficial, but I've spent (what seems like) years acquiring good links. The cost of 10 individual c-class servers far outweighs the time and money I've spent on quality links.

If you can't afford to do this look into static IP's through your provider.

Last option is to do abc linking.

GaryTheScubaGuy

[rak]

Put them on individual c-class servers and preferably each in its targeted geographic location. Use GPS metas and google geotargeting for each.

I'm not saying what you are proposing isn't beneficial, but I've spent (what seems like) years acquiring good links. The cost of 10 individual c-class servers far outweighs the time and money I've spent on quality links.

If you can't afford to do this look into static IP's through your provider.

Last option is to do abc linking.

GaryTheScubaGuy

New term for me "GPS metas" - whats a GPS meta?

Cheers in advance.
Rak

[baldidiot]

New term for me "GPS metas" - whats a GPS meta?

I've never heard this term either

[davemerry]

I may be missing something new here as well, but I assume because of the context Gary is talking about geo meta tags.

Matt Cutts plays them down here, but no harm in putting them in to reinforce the other signals you are giving Google of separate sites.

[baldidiot]

I may be missing something new here as well, but I assume because of the context Gary is talking about geo meta tags.

Matt Cutts plays them down here, but no harm in putting them in to reinforce the other signals you are giving Google of separate sites.

Thanks - that makes sense!

[rak]

Thanks Dave.
I looked on wikipedia for more infol.. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geotagging

The GeoURL[4] standard requires the ICBM tag[5] method which is used to geotag standard web pages in HTML format:
<meta name="ICBM" content="50.167958, -97.133185">

The similar Geo Tag format allows the addition of placename and region tags:
<meta name="geo.position" content="50.167958;-97.133185">
<meta name="geo.placename" content="Rockwood Rural Municipality, Manitoba, Canada">
<meta name="geo.region" content="ca-mb">

[GaryTheScubaGuy]

Yes Dave is right. Sorry guys, OTR and very little time but Dave is correct.

[casinoplanet]

I cross-link all of my sites which have related topics. Never heard this could do any harm.

[michael1981]

I've always been too afraid to cross-link any of my sites, but a lot of people do this with no negative penalties. I guess Google doesn't mind if the sites are related, and it makes sense for those links to be there (in terms of benefiting your visitors). This is a great thread, glad I saw it