Let's say that I have a website that has a very large classifieds section. The classifieds section is broken down into geographic sub-categories. ie cities... Let's say there are 500 sub-categories all in PHP that look like this: www.mysite.com/classifieds/showcat.php?cat=1 . . . www.mysite.com/classifieds/showcat.php?cat=500 Now, let's say I made up 500 sub-domains that each correspond to a city in my classifieds, so I would end up with: www.austin.mysite.com www.boston.mysite.com . . . www.virginiabeach.mysite.com Now suppose I optimized each subdomain for classifieds in each city and then on each sub-domain placed a link back to www.mysite.com/classifieds/showcat.php?cat=x(corresponding city) So I would end up with 500 links back to www.mysite.com/classifieds Would this be considered "black-hat"?
That's not a black hat technique. Since subdomains are considered by search engines as separate domains, you'd essentially be using on-site SEO (from the subs) to bump the other pages of the root domain. As for the USA cities, there are not 500 even worth building out your site for. Actually there are only a select number of American cities w/ 200,000+ population and per capita income stats worth targeting. Those cities according to my research are: Alabama Birmingham Alabama Montgomery Alabama Alaska Anchorage Alaska Arizona Phoenix Arizona Tucson Arizona Mesa Arizona Glendale Arizona Scottsdale Arizona Tempe Arizona Chandler Arizona Peoria Arizona Arkansas Little Rock Arkansas California Anaheim California Bakersfield California Fremont California Fresno City California Glendale California Huntington Beach California Long Beach California Los Angeles California Oakland California Riverside California Sacramento California San Diego California San Francisco California San Jose California Santa Ana California Stockton California Colorado Aurora Colorado Colorado Springs Colorado Denver Colorado Connecticut Bridgeport Connecticut New Haven Connecticut Hartford Connecticut Stamford Connecticut Delaware Wilmington Delaware Dover Delaware Newark Delaware Florida Jacksonville Florida Miami Florida St. Petersburg Florida Tampa Florida Georgia Atlanta Georgia Augusta Georgia Hawaii Honolulu Hawaii Idaho Boise Idaho Illinois Peoria Illinois Chicago Illinois Indiana Indianapolis Indiana Iowa Des Moines Iowa Kansas Wichita Kansas Kentucky Louisville Kentucky Louisiana New Orleans Louisiana Shreveport Louisiana Maine Portland Maine Maryland Baltimore Maryland Massachusetts Boston Massachusetts Worcester Massachusetts Michigan Grand Rapids Michigan Minnesota Minneapolis Minnesota Mississippi Jackson Mississippi Gulfport Mississippi Biloxi Mississippi Missouri Springfield Missouri St.Louis Missouri Montana Helena Montana Nebraska Lincoln Nebraska Omaha Nebraska Nevada Henderson Nevada Las Vegas Nevada Reno Nevada New Hampshire Manchester New Hampshire Nashua New Hampshire New Jersey Jersey City New Jersey New Mexico Albuquerque New Mexico New York Babylon New York Bronx New York Brookhaven New York Brooklyn New York Buffalo New York Hempstead New York Huntington New York Islip New York New York New York North Hempstead New York Oyster Bay New York Queens New York Richmond New York Rochester New York Staten Island New York Yonkers New York North Carolina Charlotte North Carolina Durham North Carolina Greensboro North Carolina Winston-Salem North Carolina North Dakota Fargo North Dakota Bismarck North Dakota Ohio Akron Ohio Cincinnati Ohio Cleveland Ohio Columbus Ohio Toledo Ohio Oklahoma Tulsa Oklahoma Oregon Portland Oregon Pennsylvania Philadelphia Pennsylvania Pittsburgh Pennsylvania Allentown Pennsylvania Erie Pennsylvania Rhode Island Providence Rhode Island South Carolina Columbia South Carolina Charleston South Carolina South Dakota Sioux Falls South Dakota Rapid City South Dakota Tennessee Memphis Tennessee Nashville Tennessee Texas Amarillo Texas Arlington Texas Austin Texas Corpus Christi Texas Dallas Texas El Paso Texas Fort Worth Texas Houston Texas Irving Texas Laredo Texas Lubbock Texas Utah Salt Lake City Utah West Valley City Utah Provo Utah Vermont Burlington Vermont Essex Vermont Virginia Arlington Virginia Chesapeake Virginia Norfolk Virginia Virginia Beach Virginia Washington Seattle Washington Spokane Washington Tacoma Washington Washington D.C. District Of Columbia West Virginia Charleston West Virginia Huntington West Virginia Wisconsin Green Bay Wisconsin Wyoming Cheyenne Wyoming Casper Wyoming Laramie Wyoming .
Actually that assertion is meaningless in terms of any penalty to your own site. Subdomains and links back to your own root domain are simply good web mastery -- practiced wisely they can help boost your search engine positions and improve usability for your users.
If the subdomains are on topic with the main domain the SE`s should not give you a penalty. You can also look at it this way: 100 links from the same IP is much less worth than 100 links from different IPs.
That's true as Search engine do not want anyone to dominate them. By getting links from different IPs is what search engines always favor. Remember that search engines are always few steps ahead of the rest. This is the reason they keep on changing their algorithms regularly.
Thanks for the replies... As long as there will be no penalty, I'm fine with little value to the links.
I live in two of those cities on that list On a side note, Fresno CA does not deserve to be there I went through their once and it was booorrriiinnggg..