Link to another domain hosted on same IP

Likely to be penalised?

[macavity]

Hi all,

I apologise in advance for being "a bear of very little brain" because I know this topic has been covered before, both here and elsewhere. Unfortunately, I'm still confused! I'd appreciate the latest thinking on the following:

I have a number of differently themed domains on the same virtual host/IP address. Occasionally however, it may be appropriate (i.e. not just for SEO purposes ;-) for me to post a link to one domain from one of the others (e.g. in a news article on the homepage). Is this likely to be penalised by search engines who might think I'm artificially trying to boost traffic, page rank, etc? I've come across widely different opinions in my research so far...

Kind regards,

Mac

[jsnow]

I believe if there isn't heavy interlinking between the sites you will be fine

[jbgilbert]

What you are talking about is linking domains together that reside in the same Class C block.

I don't think anybody knows the real answer to this. I have personally seen mixed results under this case and have not been able to pin it down to a Class C block linking issue.