links from similar sites. is it Bad Linking ?

[pkKumar]

I have two similar looking websites say A and B, both for online exam preparation but for two separate exams. Both the sites have A and B have a discussion forum section, In that some time user inquire things that is related to other site, so in the answers i need to redirect them to other site for getting the appropriate answers. Now the links from A to B or viceversa, will they be considered as bad or spammy links.

Both the websites are on different shared hosting server of the same host.

[goodroi]

It sounds like if you do not interlink the sites you will likely end up with unhappy users and lower conversions. If you are talking about a handful of links that will improve usability, I would go for it. It is ok to exchange links between your websites if it is done in a user friendly and relevant way.

Many webmasters get into trouble when they start interlinking their websites on a large scale with high repetition of anchor text in an effort to artificially boost link juice.

[Hoople]

If the link makes sense for the user, do it! That is if the site linked to is considered an authority on the subject. Interlinking solely for the search engine's benefit is to be avoided if the target page is not an authoritative site.

Do link to the deep page (rather than the main page) where the answer exists. This should be a page that many would feel is authoritative on the sub topic.

[pkKumar]

It is ok to exchange links between your websites if it is done in a user friendly and relevant way

That is what i always do.
But there is a link(with the name of Exam) in header in master page of one site which points to other site. Due to this link appear on each page, will it make any harm.

[Robert Charlton]

Do the sites each have independent backlinks... or are the backlinks from common sources? If the sites have a substantial number of independent inbound links, and if you're not interlinking the sites for anchor text or link juice, then you're probably OK.

If the sites don't have strong, independent link profiles, they you might consider using rel="nofollow" on the links between the sites.

[pkKumar]

Do the sites each have independent backlinks... or are the backlinks from common sources?

are you asking this in context to all the inbound links (backlinks) to both the sites? If yes, then both the sites have not too much backlinks, but some similar type like from directories or forum.

Independent link profile ? i am not getting. Anchor text is the name of the examination and it stays on header of each page.

[Robert Charlton]

Independent link profile? i am not getting.

What I'm asking is whether the sites each have good backlinks from other sites, which are not connected with each other.

Do the sites each have independent backlinks... or are the backlinks from common sources?

are you asking this in context to all the inbound links (backlinks) to both the sites? If yes, then both the sites have not too much backlinks, but some similar type like from directories or forum.

From your comments, it sounds like you don't have enough good links for you to be interlinking the sites as you are.

Guessing from what you've described, I'd say that chances are this interlinking could be a large enough percentage of the total inbound links for each site that it may well cause a link penalty. Your overall linking will probably look manipulative to Google.

For that reason, I'd recommend rel="nofollow" on the links between the sites (and I'm generally not very fond of using "nofollow".)

[pkKumar]

From your comments, it sounds like you don't have enough good links for you to be interlinking the sites as you are

It might be true, since the link is on a masterpage header, so it will repeat on every page and there are whole lot of pages on the site.
Is rel="nofollow" a good option, since i have to make changes to few pages only.
One more thing its there for more than 4 months and i have not received any warning or penalty from google. Yes i have no page rank but doing well in google search for target keywords.