Boosting my own PR

A good idea?

[yosmc]

I have three websites, one PR7 and two (high) PR5s. I think it would be cool if I could find at least one PR7 site to link to my PR5 sites... but then again, I already own a PR7 site. :) I find it very tempting to simply put a link to each of my PR5 sites on the main page of my PR7 site. It's not on a related topic, but if I put it in a box, it'll be like an ad, and banner ads are often not related to the topic of a site either.

Seems easy, almost too easy - where are the pitfalls? Will it work? Is it ethical - and, if it isn't, should I care? :)

[rfgdxm1]

Shouldn't be a problem. There could be an issue if the PR5 sites link back. However, just 3 sites shouldn't be seen as a link farm. The fact they are on unrelated topics actually help here. Since presumably all 3 won't come up for any specific search, this isn't spamming.

[mil2k]

I tend to agree with rfgdxm1

[Powdork]

From the Google Guidelines [google.com]

Avoid tricks intended to improve search engine rankings. A good rule of thumb is whether you'd feel comfortable explaining what you've done to a website that competes with you. Another useful test is to ask, "Does this help my users? Would I do this if search engines didn't exist?"

Sounds like you'd probably be under the radar though, unless someone reports you. Then you must be sure the rest of your site(s) is squeaky clean.

[mil2k]

He can explain those sites by giving a heading like "Our Other Sites". Perfectly allright with me if there is no crosslinking attempted.

[killroy]

Considering some of the MASSIVE violations I had on successfull sites before I knew anything about SEO, I don't think such small stuff will ring Boogles alarm bells. I think they're out to get the big ones.

Make it make sense to your visitors by linking through "other products by this web master" or "Interesting widgets you may be interested in". Doesn't look fishy to me, won't look fishy to a visitor, and Google will be happy too.

Try not to be OVERLY paranoid about Google. You gotta hit it pretty hard and nasty to trigger its spam detectors.

SN