Cross Linking Without Hidden Text

Will Google penalize for this?

[More Traffic Please]

Lets say I have 20 sites and at the bottom of each index page I have the phrase "Terms and conditions". It looks like one big link, but actually, each letter is linked to the another sites I own as a convienent way of creating a ring without having a bunch of apparent links or resorting to links the same color as the background. Would Google consider these hidden links and possibly penalize the sites? Technically, the phrase is visable and underlined. however, it's clearly deceiving.

BTW, I own only one site and I'm asking this because I've seen it done a couple of times and it seemed like kind of a gray area.

[ciml]

If you were to link the home pages of a number of domains all to each other, then there's a good chance of a severe penalty at some point.

The fact that the links are not hidden won't stop a network frm being hit; also if a human reviewer was to see it then we can only imagine that they'd be unimpressed.

The Web's pretty big though, so at any time there will be quite a lot of networks like this that haven't been hit (yet).

[Marcia]

Let's say there are 5 sites with minor variations in the same niche all linked to each other openly from all the pages of all 5 sites. Those seem to be alive and kicking and going strong for quite a while.

[More Traffic Please]

If you were to link the home pages of a number of domains all to each other, then there's a good chance of a severe penalty at some point.

Thanks, my gut feeling was that if the sites were only linked from the index pages to each other, this would not be strong enough inter linking to warrent a penality. However if the inside pages of all the sites linked to the 20 index pages, that would definitely be going overboard. Once again I guess you get into somewhat of a gray area depending on the number of sites and pages.

The thing I was most curious about was if Google would penalize a site for using the phrase "terms and conditions" and using each letter as a link to another site. Technically the links are visable, but the practice is deceptive.

[cayleyv]

I have seen sites do exactly this - and the question to ask is why do it? What value does hiding links have for a user? It seems like the links should not be there at all.

If a human reviewer saw this they would wonder what you were trying to hide and act accordingly.

[nutsandbolts]

Lets say I have 20 sites and at the bottom of each index page I have the phrase "Terms and conditions".

Woooooo. Hold on! Don't do it. As someone who tried this "cross-linking" experiment two years ago and having *only recently* returned from the bottomless pits of 0 Pagerank hell at Google - I can tell you quite honestly - It just ain't worth risking your sites for good, short term results.

It's not a question of *if* Google will catch you, but when. Sure, there are sites still doing this and getting away with it...FOR NOW! But mark my words, they are living on borrowed time.

Basically, I managed to create my own personal bad neighbourhood by cross-linking on EVERY index page on a network of 10+ sites. Everything was fine for 2 weeks. Then Boom! ... Firstly I got a +10 penalty which pushed my pages way down the SERPS - then, one month later, I received a real, all-American, fat and juicy Non-Expiring ZERO Pagerank across every single site!

The team here and GoogleGuy brought me back from the dead, but I stay here - wailing at those who enter these shores, daring to try the dangerous practise of cross-linking.

[bobothecat]

I concur with nutsandbolts... been there, done that... my advice - don't.

It's usually not worth the chance of having to start over.

[plasma]

'Single Charakter Keyword'?
LOL

[greenfrog]

I think I may have been hit with a cross linking penalty this update. I have about 5 sites of my own that I personally run, and none of them are a spam attempt to get more traffic. Each of them points to the others.

Some becuase they reference the parent company. For example the about us page, and the contact us page both have links to the parent company web site. And vice-versa. The parent company points to the sites that it manages.

Anyway, after the penalty, if that is what I just received....how long does it take to come back?

Is it a one month thing? or can it be longer.