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I'm wondering what the best strategy would be for a network of sites (10+), which are in the same industry to achieve optimum results in Google.
Google already indexes the sites - 3 sites have a pr6, the others having a pr5.
As I can make any modifications/additions to these sites I'm wondering the best strategy to follow to turn these sites (or at least one) into "Cash Cows".
Some ideas are:
To link all sites to one (from multiple pages), therefore pushing one site while the others are supporting - (giving pr), links, etc. - is this suggested????
To continue developing each site independently but "somehow" using the network's strengths.
...if anyone can brainstorm some suggestions/ideas ,etc it would be greatly appreciated! Thanks.:)
I don't think cross linking is the main issue as some would like to think it is. I believe its how those links are set up and how the network is structured.
Did a campaign about 3 years ago using 4 regionally specific sites. Today, those sites still hold top ten positions for very competitive terms in the industry.
#3 out of 1,020,000 results for the primary two word phrase, not bad! #1 for all the regional phrases, even better!
[edited by: pageoneresults at 6:44 pm (utc) on July 1, 2002]
The ingredients for PR0 soup, perhaps? <duck>
I would happily link the ten to one, and then back from the one to the ten. That is the natural link relationship for multi-domain hierrarchies.
I would happily cross-link each page on two domains, as I haven't seen penalised folk with that kind of structure.
Linking ten domains, all to each other? I've seen sites get away with it, but it is the one most common theme of the long term PR0s that I've looked at.
As a full-time webmaster these sites are my only source of income and I've been very cautious about getting these sites penalized. However, I want to grow my business and I'm looking at strategies to increase our traffic.
All the sites have links pages and all sites in the network are linked from there. We are always looking at adding more content, which I believe, is the key.....
I am currently looking at translating all the sites into Spanish and putting each one on a separate domain....Therefore, there will be more sites...SO I will seriously consider linking everything as suggested however is this a good strategy for long term ??? Some of the companies I'm competing against have a link popularity of 1,000+ and my sites have a link pop. of about 200 each... Therefore interlinking would give me a boost (I think) ....then again I don't want to be homeless either :)
Thanks for all the posts :)
If the linking is between sites that are not on topic for the main theme of the network, then there may be issues. Meaning, if you are just linking them to artificially increase link popularity.
If the linking is between sites that are on topic (network theme), and the links are properly structured and utilized correctly to link between various pages of each site in the network, then I don't think there are any issues. As a matter of fact, I think that is where the power of the network is, in the cross linking!
My theory could be wrong based on all the topics that have surfaced pertaining to cross linking. But, after three years of watching and monitoring the network, I don't see that to be the case. I could also be lucky, but I'm a firm believer in that you have control over your destiny so luck typically doesn't factor in my success equation.
There is an line in the sand and when you cross it, you get stuck with PR0... The question is "Where is that line?" Only Google knows.
There were two distinct networks of sites I had that got PR0. The sites in each network were definitely theme related. One network was far more interlinked than the other, however both networks got hit with PR0.
I may be overly cautious here, but I uprooted the crosslinking and developed an entirely different strategy.
I'm with Brett on this one, I've never subscribed to the cross linking penalty. I always felt that there are other underlying issues which aren't being considered or discussed, more the latter! ;)
Cross-linking is naughty and is pretty much the same as google bombing. You have this type of "keyword as site list" link on the index page of everyone of your sites. It works for a few weeks and then GoogleBot slaps your thighs and 0 ranks you and plops you into penalty heaven. So, don't do it.
And for those that don't believe in the Cross-linking penalty. Mwwahhahaa ;)
1. It is possible to cross link domains without getting an automatic penalty.
2. Some people believe that an automatic penalty can come from cross linking.
3. Some people believe that there is no cross linking automatic penalty.
3. Some people (many?) believe that you need more that two sites to get an automatic penalty from cross linking.
4. Some people believe that you escape the automatic cross linking penalty if you have plenty of links (in our out?) that are not part of the network.
5. Some people believe that the penalty applies when the pages are not on the same 'theme' (eg. don't share body or title text).
6. You can get a type of automatic penalty by using 'poison words' (or at least you could).
7. You can get a type of automatic penalty by linking to pages that have a penalty.
8. In some of these penalties the page itself retains its PageRank, but can't pass it on.
9. ?
I think I'm safe in leaving out the 'some people think' part for 1 (there are examples if you look hard) and parts 6, 7 and 8 (for which we've had dmoz.org examples). 2 & 3 are contentious; 4 is most interesting, IMO.
pr10:
> Therefore interlinking would give me a boost (I think)
I don't believe that linking from each page to each other is the ideal structure from a PageRank point of view, but it's worth discussion for curiosity's sake, and because in some contexts (eg. multi-language) it can make sense from a usability point of view.
