Ive noticed a competitior is cross linking their 4 sites to pass PR to each other and now they are doing the same with their blogs that are on their domain. I reported this initially to google and they did nothing! What can I do or what is the most effective way to report spamming to Google - so that they LISTEN?
If their sites are related and useful to their visitors there is no reason they should not link to each other, hence why google did nothing. google.co.uk link to google.com gmail etc.
doing cross linking is not spamming...over cross linking is spamming...and for that to be penalized , no need to report..Google does it on its own!
there's a number of directories and websites that I know of that do that, and it works for them. never considered it anything unusual
I don't know how you'd think you'd know if google had done anything about it anyway. They may have devalued those links, they may never have 'counted' them at all, you wouldn't know. But it's not spamming - if google doesn't like the links, it'll ignore them.
Cross Linking is not anything against the ethics of SEO. Infact, its good and you can do it for your sites too as long as the contents are unique.
Some people are even sure that if you link to the right (certainly thematic) sites - it does you good in terms of ranking...
1) 3 way linking is not illegal, neither is cross linking. Why exactly would it be? 2) when did you become the police of the internet world? 3) if your competitors have the savvy and the knowhow to properly link their website and follow G rules at the same time, they will not be banned and will keep ranking. Your best bet is to STOP trying to police the competition and keep building your own SEO, SEM and SM campaigns.
Is it true that SE (especially google) penalize you for cross linking between your domains if it is on the same server. But a moderate amount of cross-linking between sites is allow, as long as: 1. If you don't overdo it, and 2. If you have more than just that for links.
I am surprised that OP is feeling wrong doing in people cross linking their own sites! After all, isn't he familiar with the economies of scale? As one tends to grow in size and scale, these are the benefits that easily accrue to them...and it is just part of the business. Instead of taking pot-shots at it, one should concentrate on growing as well. Regards, RightMan
Amazing how everyone chimes in with advice and so many people on DP know nothing. Reporting is a waste of your time because nothing ever comes of it. Hopefully G will find it and penalize them.
Maybe you should create 3 other sites and cross link between them? If you can't beat em, join em. And no, you can't beat em by complaining to google there's nothing wrong with it
cross linking, 3 -way linking, or whatever you call them is fine as long as it wont fall under "too much" spamming