Do you know - Is it wise to cross link your 5 main sites (same IP)?

[workinghard]

Hi

I have 5 main sites (including 2 new ones that I want indexed ASAP) can I cross link my 5 sites?

I want to put just one link on the index page to each of the others. They all have the same IP address.

Can I do this, or will google not like it?

Thanks

[leadegroot]

My rule of thumb is to by default not interlink my sites, until there is some logical reason to do so. The links must benefit my visitors, not me, or Google will look on me as spamming. That means I don't have a link from my lingerie site to my technical site, but I do have a link to all sites from my informational site.
Sure, one little link isn't enough to get you banned (surely?) but I'm betting there will be some sort of devaluation in the algorithm somewhere.
Particularly when all the sites are on the same IP.

[neuron]

I want to put just one link on the index page to each of the others.

You shouldn't have any problems with this. It is probably not going to help your rankings on any of the sites, but it is not likely to hurt your rankings either.

There is no reason you cannot promote sites from other sites. For instance, if you put up a link that said, "If you like this site, maybe you will like our other sites." Then list them. If I had a brick and mortar Joe's Tires and Wheels shop, and I took the profits from that and started Joe's BBQ, it would not only be acceptable but prudent for me to advertise each from the other. Hey, if you like our tires, you are gonna love our BBQ. Makes sense to me.

What will these links do? They won't do much more than get the other sites indexed. Once that is accomplished, they won't count for much. What you don't want to do is link every page on all sites to every page on every other site. This would be overkill; and while it is unlikely to get you banned, it is also unlikely to be pleasing to the google algorithm.