Internal linking for PageRank - Could be a daft question...

[dwhite]

I know that Google thinks it's bad to receive payment for linking to an external website for pagerank, but has anyone had any bad experiences by linking internally for pagerank purposes?

The link would be more of an 'advertisement' as the subjects aren't related, so would that be okay?

[tedster]

Not me, but a friend. Burned big when Google thinks (or knows) you're selling the target internal page to someone else.

But if it's your own content anyway, it sounds like the kind of PageRank scuplting that Matt Cutts recommends. lots of sites publish diverse content.

[dwhite]

Yeah, I'm the only owner of the site, and it's all my own content. So I can't see any harm...

[maximus12]

Tedster, what do you mean by this? If you place a link or banner on a section of your site (blog, news, article etc) linking to another section that offers a product or service from a third party, would that be considered PageRank scuplting, or are there any risks here?

[tedster]

Here's how I see it. Done with a very light touch, the biggest risk would be that the links and the pages they link to are devalued. But done as a business model, it could be nailed with a link selling penalty that even wipes out other sites you work with.

[maximus12]

Link selling penalty? What if the page that has the links applies no=follow?

[tedster]

Then you're safe - but no PR flows, either.

[dwhite]

Tedster, just to clarify, and if you don't mind me asking, did your friend in that case receive money for that internal link? Or was it just 'pagerank sculpting' - i.e. a pagerank passing internal link where he owned the content of both pages?

[tedster]

He was receiving money for the whole page, not just the link. It was published on a site he owned but he was "renting" the page and then linking to the page from the rest of his website.

[Robert Charlton]

...he was "renting" the page and then linking to the page from the rest of his website.

Could it be he overdid the linking?

[tedster]

Could be, Robert. He really doesn't know, but he suspects he was actually reported and caught manually, not by any algo.