Cross-Linking Among Own Sites: Current thinking?

[donelson]

Cross-Linking between own websites: current status?

I have a widget website which has a link on every page (500 pages) to the home page of one of our gizmo websites (with around 4,000 inbound links in total).

The gizmo site has 3-4 links back to the home page of our widget website.

-- Will the gizmo site be penalized for this under current 2007 Google page rank rules?

[edited by: Robert_Charlton at 7:12 pm (utc) on Oct. 16, 2007]
[edit reason] removed specifics [/edit]

[tedster]

I openly cross-link sites to give visitors useful resources - no problems that I can see, even though that cross-linking is run-of-site in some cases. It does appear that such links are not given "full credit" but that's fine, I'm not doing it for PR or ranking purposes. As long as there's no penalty, the natural backlinking and PR floats the boats just fine.

[donelson]

Ted thanks.

Yes, I don't mind about not getting additional credit for our gizmo site, I just don't want a penalty to it's page rank...

[edited by: Robert_Charlton at 1:17 am (utc) on Oct. 17, 2007]
[edit reason] removed specifics [/edit]

[glengara]

Matter of interest Tedster, crosslinking apart would you say those sites stay within the linkage guidelines or do they "push the envelope"?

[randle]

I openly cross-link sites

Are any of these sites on the same servers?

[netmeg]

I do it with most of my sites, most of 'em are on the same server, and most of 'em have held very high rankings in their particular areas for two years or more. In fact, I just added a new site, and 46 of its 50 pages immediately floated to the top ten for its search phrase.

[europeforvisitors]

I'd be inclined to look at the bigger picture:

It's possible--maybe even likely--that cross-linking between two questionable sites isn't looked upon as benignly as cross-linking between two trusted sites. After all, doesn't Google claim to take more than 100 (or is it 200) factors into account when ranking sites?

[tedster]

>> I openly cross-link sites.

> Are any of these sites on the same servers?

Yes indeed - that's part of what I mean by "openly". The domains involved also have the same Whois and some even use similar templates. In short, I make no attempt to hide or deceive in any way, and I only place such links with visitors in mind, not Google ranking. A healthy backlink profile that is clearly not manipluated is, I feel, one strong reason that this cross-linking does not make any trouble.

By the way, this has been the situation since the domains were launched. I would not recommend adding heavy cross-linking to domains that are already in the index without the cross-linking.

[netmeg]

By the way, this has been the situation since the domains were launched. I would not recommend adding heavy cross-linking to domains that are already in the index without the cross-linking.

Right. And it probably doesn't hurt that some of my domains go back as far as 1994.

[HuskyPup]

I openly cross-link sites

Are any of these sites on the same servers?

I have the same experience as Tedster with 100+ widget trade related cross-linked sites on the same servers yet targeting different country markets and demographics.

I have nothing to hide, others may have!