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I went ahead and did that… but since then I have seen post claiming this practice is spam. Can someone help me? I am not trying to spam… just get my site ranked well like we all want in this forum.
Will Google ban us for this practice?
Thanks in advance for your help
For example you wouldnt link to my site on each of your pages would you?
But you may give me a link or two.
As long as you dont go overboard, youll be fine.
Scott
But, if we had a template with drop down menu's, and they were:
Main Products:
- Product Type 1 (internal)
- Product Type 2 (internal)
- Product Type 3 (internal)
- Product Type 4 (second domain)
You would end up with links on both domains - because they all use the same drop down menu's.
We have two domains - yet they both have totally unique content. Hopefully what we've got going is safe. Because of the content we have on this second domain we've NOT just created an entry page (which google says to avoid).
Chris
The purpose of navigation (menus, etc) is for internal use.
The only value in spliting domains and linking them within the naviagtion is PR.
Presumably the users aren´t aware they leave domain 1.
Seriously, how does spliting domains and heavily interlinking them hold any benfit for users?
Scott
Good point - you are correct. The navigation results in linking between the two domains on every page. But, not every page on both sites are crosslinked.
The advantage of the new domain is that it's easier to promote and be recognized by users. Our regular domain is someone's name (e.g. johnsmith.com) which has some value in our target market because they have heard of it. Our new site (e.g. leathersaddles.com) is totally focused on the saddles, though our navigation links to our other domain - and, the shopping cart is on the other domain.
At some point we might vary the design somewhat, but, it'll always be a bit similar since they are the same company.
However, I'm beginning to realize that maybe we are taking a risk by doing this on the two domains.
Would it help for us to use a different design on our secondary domain?
A penalty would be a serious, major, huge, problem and I can’t afford to go there.
Thanks,
Chris
IMHO you are running two risks:
1. A competitor notices and files a spam report.
2. Your linking methodology "flags" your sites and part of Googles algo catches it and something happens (ie something not good for you).
If your sites have been operating like this sucessfully for a while, the chances are that you are just outside Googles "threshold of tolerance" for this.
The dangerous thing is that Google is known to change the place where that threshold lies without any notice.
What I would do (and i would just like to point out that this is all conjecture and i could just be paranoid!) is create an "about" page for each of your sites.
So instead of site 1 linking to www.site2.com in the navigation, it would lead to www.site1.com/aboutsite2.htm - and internal link - no worries.
Then your page www.site1.com/aboutsite2.htm becomes a kind of promotional vehicle for your other site - and you only need to link once to it.
Then do the same for site 2.
Benefits:
> You will be clearly on the safe side - you can't be penalised for linking one site to another just once.
> You have a dedicated page on each site to sell the other one.
Pitfalls:
> It will take the user an extra click to get to your other site. But, they would have to navigate around it anyway, so I wouldn't worry about it too much.
> It could be argued that there is a negative PR effect compared to linking all your pages. But, personally I don't think the effect that PR would have on either site would be that great, so the change would be negligable.
These are just my thoughts - Im about to impliment a similar method on some of my sites, so I cant comment on how effective it would be.
Your main battle will be transfering traffic to the other site and converting the sales. But as a user, I prefer an external link to be an external link - having it as part of the nav just annoys me! :)
Scott
Thanks again. I gave some more details and the URL's in a stickymail. Since our secondary site is new it hasn't hit the index yet (should with the next update) and I guess I'm starting to get a bit nervous...
Sincerely,
Chris
On the positive side though, you have created goodlooking sites and both fit together seamlessly.
Perhaps other members can comment on how far you can go interlinking the sites, but personally I would tread on the side of caution. :)
Scott
I can just see the spam reports. "Hey google, this guy has 4 ecom sites and links them together. Kick him out. He's cheating..."
You might be right. I always like to ask myself - "how would I feel if my competitor began doing this?" Truth be told, they have launched a new "entry page" type site. The difference is it's completely a new look, has NO MENTION of their normal company name, and has limited links to their current site. Based upon what we have been discussing: much safer.
What if they had setup sites like: (I'd love to hear from someone who has been doing this for a long time - or was penalized for it)
johnsmith.com (main)
leathersaddles.com (secondary with custom content)
horsebridles.com (secondary with custom content)
horsetrainingvideos.com (secondary with custom content)
And they all used the exact same design - with the shopping cart on johnsmith.com? Plus, the drop down menu's on the sites included:
Main Products:
Leather Saddles
- Fancy Leather Saddles
- Plain Leather Saddles
Horse Bridles
- Show Horse Bridles
- Training Bridles
Training Videos
- John's Training Video
- Showmanship Training
- etc.
That is how we are ending up with cross links (and again, the horse examples are simply being made up - our industry is far removed!)
Maybe the primary solution is to try and find a way to disable google from seeing those drop down links? In fact, maybe that's already being done since, I believe, they are java script menu's.
Sincerely,
Chris
It sounds like I better revise this is ASAP.
I have a website for my company: mypublishingcompany.com
I also have a web-based publication: mypublication.com
The two sites have separate and different branding, different web-designs different structure etc.
And yet on every page of mypublication.com, towards the bottom, there is a piece of text that reads:
'A mypublishingcompany Publication' - which is linked to mypublishingcompany.com .
Why should anyone see this as spamming?
In Google, it merely comes up that the two sites are 'related' if you use the related: function.
What people see as spamming is having 200 5 page sites that link to each other on every page for PR / ranking purposes.
This is what Google penalises.
My point before is that the algo that identifies this could easily catch honest attempts at launching a new product on another site.
How many posts have you read here that have been along the lines of "my site has be banned, but ive done nothing wrong".
The issue is not what is right and wrong, as Google changes those rules with each update, as do they decide what is and isnt spam.
The issue is how to decide how much of a risk you want to take.
Do you want to post a "im innocent and caught in the crossfire cos Google is evil" thread next month? Or the month after?
Like I said before, I dont know where the proverbial line is - my personal take on it is to be cautious, as there is no reason not to be - you can still achieve the same results.
It's just good for everyone to note that there is a proverbial line that can be crossed and Google moves it on a regular basis without warning.
My 2 c. :)
Scott
Does anyone know exactly why google considers heavy cross linking as spam?
What are your thoughts on this technique –?
What if I kept the current linking menus for all the home pages the same so each site is linked only once under the current linking method.
And for the sub pages… what if I put the navigation links in a php file and embedded it in place of the current nav menus and then put a “No Robot” tag on the php file containing the navigation menus. Would that work and keep me in good standing?
Thanks again for all the feedback.
- Alter the design a bit (probably just some of the header image - drop down menus would stay the same) so the two sites have some difference
- Keep as much of the crosslinks as possible in the javascript drop down menu's (which google should avoid – right?)
The only concern is that we probably won't get it done before this update - hopefully we won't be penalized right off the bat.
Still haven’t heard from someone who has used this approach and been penalized. Most of the cases I’m aware of were blatant cross linking that a person didn’t know was wrong until too late – or people with 50 sites (all 50 states) that seemed to have similar content, but, I’m curious if there are some out there who have done this type of approach (different domains for different sections of your site).
Sincerely,
Chris
