Is interlinking a reason to be banned?

[Mikemichal]

I have 35 sites with the same theme. These are a set of interlinked sites. That means that each site has links to the other 34 sites.

Is this method of interlinking a reason to be banned by google?

[ikbenhet1]

i do this also, but with fewer sites like 15.

I am not banned, so i don't also think 35 will not do that.

[Macguru]

Hi Mikemichal,

Welcome to WebmasterWorld.
Did you read paynt's welcome post [webmasterworld.com]? Nice way to get started here.

Interlinks from sites hosted at consecutive IP adresses and/or using duplicate content are very close to the edge...

[NFFC]

>I am not banned,

Yet :)

Mikemichal, there are a lot of variables but if you are taking one domain with some external links and trying to push the PR round the circle and back again I only see trouble ahead.

[ikbenhet1]

what if these 35 sites were spread over 2 domains, would it be less dangerous than 35 sites on 1 domain?

i think it shouldn't matter, but hey, you're the expert.

if you have lot's of pages linking to each other on the same domain, this also could be a sign of hard sweaty work right instead on spam?

[Mikemichal]

Dear NFFC!

Why?

[WebGuerrilla]

Whether or not you get caught by a filter will have to do with the amount of total PR your own network of sites contributes to any one page.

If each individual site has a decent number of inbound links from other sites that you do not control, then I doubt you will have a problem. On the otherhand, if each individual site is only earning PR from your other sites, then you are at risk.

[JayC]

That means that each site has links to the other 34 sites.

An important element that you didn't address in describing the situation is what other links lead to the sites in question. If all 35 sites has a good, diverse set of backward links plus the interlinking, I wouldn't expect it to cause a problem.

But if just one of the sites is the "main" site and only that one has other links, then the links among your set of sites are distributing that main site's PR throughout your cirle, that'd be playing with fire.

And that's what NFFC was getting at, I believe.

[Mikemichal]

All the 35 sites have their own domain, but the IP address is consecutive.

So what do you think?

[Macguru]

>>but the IP address is consecutive. So what do you think?

No good.

1- get a hosting budget and spread them all over the net.
2- get a lot of links from outside

[topr8]

>>>get a hosting budget and spread them all over the net.

... you might also ponder on who the sites are registered to.

[ergophobe]

... you might also ponder on who the sites are registered to.

Are you seriously suggesting that the Google Bot (or the Google Secret Service) actually checks the Whois DB to see which domains are owned by the same person? It makes the CIA and the NSA sound innocuous.

Tom

[Chris_R]

I have seen nothing to sugget IPs or whois matters to google. Of course - this could change in the future....

[topr8]

>>I have seen nothing to suggest IPs or whois matters to google.

absolutely same here ... but if someone was to have for instance 30/40/50 themed websites all with "unique content" and all interlinked, it may appear to an impartial outsider that those websites are infact very similiar and only exist to circulate and boost each other's pagerank, of course i know that this is not the reason that someone would produce so many websites on the same topic,

...i'm sure none of the competitors of this ring of sites would bother to go to the whois and discover they are all owned by the same person, and having discovered that they probably wouldn't think they could get an advantage by attempting to darken the name of the owner by sending a spam report to google.

;) :)

[SebastianX]

In our industry it is usual to operate dozens or even hundreds of sites (domains) dedicated to similar topics. Many webmasters interlinked huge clusters of sites and got banned. Most of them used dubious techniques to hide the (overdone) interlinking and deserve the penalties. But lots of honest webmasters were penalized for interlinking their domains though they didn't try to cheat. Their fault, they didn't know the rules - fair from Google's POV. I don't want to bitch, because none of my domains are penalized or banned. But I think my experience in this environment could be helpful. My rules of thumb:
1) Link natural, do not try to be smarter than Google and avoid systematic link patterns.
2) Less is more: A handful of relevant links are better than a zillion links from poor sources.
3) Link by niche/topic: A handful of links from theme relevant sites are better than a zillion links from unrelated URLs.
4) Link to add value: If you believe a link is valuable for the surfers visiting your site, then put it in. If you're not sure don't.
5) Link visible: That does not mean link prominent in all cases, but do not try to hide links. This includes linked spacer.gif's and other well known image file names often used to cheat.
6) Aquire valuable themed inbound links daily: Even votes from low ranked but active sites are helpful on the long haul as long as they are clean and related to your site's theme. They will get a higher PR in the future and increase your PR later on.
7) Do not build intermeshed link realms: IMHO Google knows enough about the distance between sites voting for each other to lower the distributed PR even in 'good neighborhoods'.
8) Take care.