How to link to Subdomains?

[WebWalla]

We have a main .com site based around a specific product. The main site links to several subdomains for city-specific information for this product (e.g. newyork.mysite.com, amsterdam.mysite.com)

Given that all subdomains are linked to from the mainpage of mysite.com, do you think it will be OK to link back to the mainpage from all sub-domains, or would we be asking for trouble?

thanks.

[tigger]

You have to be careful, pre the last update I would have said fine, but 2 of my sites lost the lot PR/links and I can only put it down to linking between the 2 sites.

The two sites where linked on most pages as they complimented each other very well both offer wigets one blue another red, this was not done to try and increase PR as most of the page where PR4 & 5 but to offer people another product

But that’s the only thing I can think of the would cause a penalty so be careful and yes both site where hosted with different companies

[WebWalla]

But surely it would be different for subdomains of the same site? Or are subdomains treated as different sites? All subdomains and the main site use the same host and have the same IP address.

[Grumpus]

Googleguy recently said something to the effect of: If there's enough unique information to warrant a sub-domain rather than just a new page on the site, then "don't worry about it."

Now, that being said, if you've only got one page for each "region" and they are identical other than the city name and the currency, etc. then I probably wouldn't link back. I've recently subdivided my site into "Main Information Domain" and "Shopping for the stuff on the Main Domain" subdomain and crosslink extensively. It's only been in one update, but Google seems to love it as it can easily "theme me out" by saying "Okay - main.com = 'info', buy.main.com = 'products'). So much so that my shopping subdomain ranks very well with "buy" words and the related "info" page ranks higher without the "buy words".

G.

[willtell]

With the limited information you gave, I can say that you will not have a problem with Google. Why? because we have conducted extensive testing in this area and Google does not automatically penalize you for this type of linking. The main criteria is, does your content warrant this type of linking. Making your site easier to navigate is not a reason for Google to ban you.

Using sub-domains and crosslinking does not appear to help in linking rank. At least in the thousands that we have tested. So the only reason you want to use it is to facilitate user experience.

[muesli]

webwalla, you might be interested in this thread about heavily interlinked subdomains and googleguy's position on them:
[webmasterworld.com...]