Cross linking 300 related sites

[kokopoko]

I stumbled across this page that has a link to every site developed by this company. There are over 200 sites linked to on this page. They are all automotive sites.

I had always thought this was not a good thing to do according to Google. Especially with white text on a light gray background. But I watched the video by Matt Cutts on cross linking and it doesn't really sound like it's a problem. What have you seen with cross linking like this?

[edited by: tedster at 4:49 pm (utc) on Oct 12, 2011]
[edit reason] please don't post specific sites [/edit]

[tedster]

No, that kind of cross-linking isn't a good thing - but that doesn't mean it's going to cause a penalty. These days, Google often just ignores links that it doesn't find up to their standards.

The white text over light gray background idea is just a silly thing - an old school spam attempt and it never made any sense or had any effectiveness in the first place.

[goodroi]

I agree with Ted.

Think about it this way - adding a spoonful of sugar to your cup of coffee is a good thing. Adding an entire bag of sugar to a single cup is a bad thing.

Relevant cross linking on a limited scale is fine and helps with the user experience. Interlinking 300 sites on a single page at best case completely dilutes the benefit and at worse case can lead to penalties.

[walkman]

"Cross linking 300 related sites"

If this is flagged algorithmically and it lands on someone's Mac laptop they will probably get a ban.

[kokopoko]

It hasn't been flagged yet. All those sites are ranking quickly and top 2 for their main keyword.

[Simsi]

If this is flagged algorithmically and it lands on someone's Mac laptop they will probably get a ban.

Wouldn't that be unlikely? Or else I could set up a bunch of nicely spun minisites like a competitors and link the whole load together, with the competitors, and bring them down too. Google just discounting the links seems to make more sense.

Anyway, just wanted to add to the OP and back up Goodroi's post in that I see good results from in-network linking providing it adds to the user experience and is genuinely useful and relevant.