Can crosslinking subdomains make PR go to zero?

[sven1977]

I have the following question: My PR just dropped to zero (from 4-6) on all my sites under my domain example-dot-com.
A few weeks ago, I started to crosslink all my subdomains together. In Particular, on every page that I have, I placed links to all root-directories of all subdomains I have (about 5).
For example, on page xyz.html, I link to a.example.com/, b.example.com/, c.example.com/, etc...
On page xyz2.html, I do the same (link to a.example.com/, b.example.com/, etc..)

Could that have been the reason my PR was killed? Thanks for your help, I'm a little concerned.

[kaled]

If your SERPS are ok its probably a glitch, however...

The last time I checked, some months ago, Google treated subdomains very much like separate domains, so it is possible that you have tripped a filter.

Kaled.

[dethfire]

I cross linked all my sites last summer and they all bombed, keep their PF, but rankings too a nose dive, still haven't recovered

[sven1977]

I removed all the crosslinks now from all my pages and only link to one single main-hub page on the core domain (example-dot-com). I'll probably have to watch the situation for very long now, since it may take a while for my PR to recover. Anyway, I'll post back here as soon as I have (or believe to have) some results.

[Kufu]

What you did there was to create a mini network which can be assumed to have been created for artificial boosting of the PR, and that's what you got zapped by Google.

Cross linking is a bad idea. You are lucky that you didn't get banned.

[NoLimits]

I disagree.

If the sites are related in a manner that cross-linking naturally applies - link away. If you are cross-linking tons of unrelated sub-domains with site wide links, that's another story.

[Kufu]

While we are disagreeing... :)

Even related sites will cause a problem if the domains are owned by the same entity or if the domains are all hosted on the same (or similar) IPs.

[sven1977]

To clarify my situation: All subdomains are related in topic very closely. Still they are all hosted under the same IP.

[wedouglas]

I dont think this would cause a problem. I would think being able to section of a domain and crosslinking would be important. what about a site that has many different categories? books.site.com electronics.site.com etc.

[b2net]

Or different language versions: en.domain.com, de.domain.com, es.domain.com
The problem with Google is that it cannot see if the linking is done with good or bad intentions. That's why many clean sites have been hit hard.

[Kufu]

Why use a subdomain book.example.com and split up the PR. One would just use example.com/book and get the benefit of an organized structure and keep the PR on just one domain.

[walkman]

very possible. Stay away from interlinking

[Heartlander]

Well then if what is posted here is true, how about forum type sites that have a left column on every page- with links for all of the site's pages?

[tedster]

Just a thought. There may well be a difference between a domain that launches with cross-linking, and one where lots of cross-linking suddenly appears between five previously existing subdomains.

Also, forums would usually be just one subdomain of a principle domain name -- if they are even on a subdomain at all. The thing about subdomains is that they are treated as distinct sites, definitely related in a Hilltop way, but still distinct. They don't cluster or indent on the SERP for instance, and can appear as a separate result on the same search. So such cross-linking might threaten the integrity of the search results when, as sven1977 says "All subdomains are related in topic very closely."

[v9ix2k]

Kufu,

> Why use a subdomain book.example.com and split up the PR. One would just use example.com/book and get the benefit of an organized structure and keep the PR on just one domain.

PageRank is per-page relative thing, not per-domain. If Google didn't change original PR distribution algorithm - there should not be any difference between book.example.com/ and example.com/book/ if they have same ingoing and outgoing linkage.

Otherwise, if Google rewrote rules (if it penalizing subdomains from similar IPs, etc.) - I'm washing my hands. But I don't think so - I see enough examples of havy 3-rd level subdomains usage without any visible penalties.

[idolw]

I have a site wih 6 subdomains. Each subdomain represents another country we are present. They must be cross linked as they belong to one company. 100% natural for me.
I have another site where I am establishing new subdomains due to website's growth.
Subdomains are great for good website management. When we established the first subdomains, we did not think about them helping us get better rankings. We simply did them as they looked cool.

I guess the trick is not to crosslink between niches, i.e. building subdomains for:
cars.example.com
shoes.example.com
jeans.example.com
if you have started your website as one that sells examples only.
Keep your greed tight, use subdomains for your users or at least your own experience and they will work just fine.

[glitterball]

I have several sites that use the subdomains such as de.example.com es.example.com for each language version.

es.example.com/widgets.htm links to de.example.com/widgets.htm. Is this bad? Should I make the site less usable and only have links to the homepage?

Maybe GoogleGuy could clarify this one.

[Kufu]

v9ix2k,

My point was that using directories instead of subdomains one can keep the links within the same site as opposed to subdomain (which are considered entirely separate domains) links coming back to the main domain. Perhaps 'spliting PR' is not the best term to use here.

[drall]

We have a old network of related sites going back 5-7 years, about 13 or so sites in the network all interlinked on every page as they are all relevant to each other and thats about 100,000 pages.

As far as I am aware we have never had a penalty applied due to the heavy interlinking but all sites where launched with the interlinking in place.

My understanding is that you wouldnt be penalized for interlinking relevant sites as most major networks do, I thought G would just discount any weight given by those links though. These are not subdomains though so maybe that doesnt apply in this case.

[glengara]

"Keep your greed tight..*

Very wise words, IMO....