"Sub-sites" penalized for linking to main site, b/c of Analytics?

[degenerate]

Hello, long time reader, first time poster.

I have a main site with healthy PR and several ranked inner pages, as well as 1.8K indexed pages.

I also have "sub-site" domains picking up heavy keywords in SERPS which contain some information about the large site. They link back to proper pages on the large site.

None of the information on the sub-sites is duplicate content, but because each sub-site links back to the main site exclusively, they are all PR0 on every page.

The only sub-site above PR0 is the one I don't have in my Analytics account. Perhaps having the sub-sites in my analytics makes google recognize their purpose?

I am thinking of removing all the sub-sites from analytics and removing the links to the main site for a while, to see if they stop being penalized and get ranked eventually.

Anyone have a similar situation that can lend some advice?

[tedster]

I'm strongly convinced that the Analytics data is not used by the organic ranking algo in any way. But even if it were used, you've already sent the signal - and Google saves data forever.

There's no problem with operating supportive domains for special purposes. But they do need to stand on their own, Attracting their own natural backlinks. That's what generates PR for pages on those domains.

[ecmedia]

Agree with Tedster. There is no logic to penalize a subdomain just because it links to main domain or other subdomains. I am doing exactly what you do, including Analytics integration, and I see no impact on ranking.

[lfgoal]

"But even if it were used, you've already sent the signal - and Google saves data forever. "

And they ask me why I use different accounts with different computers on different ISP's. Ha!

[lfgoal]

In the web world, paranoia is a virtue.

[degenerate]

Thanks all for your replies. I will just remove the links to the main site and build up each sub-site so it can stand on its own before linking to the big one.