Hi, I've got a quick question that I'm hoping someone can clarify. We've got a few sites which have related content (not duplicate) which we'd like to cross link. This is purely from a user's advantage and in no way are we trying to manipulate PR. What is the best method of doing this to ensure that we won't be penalized by the search engines? - Nofollow the links - Use JavaScript to ensure the link isn't followed - Use another URL to redirect through - Or any combination of the above Thanks.
Thanks guys... is there any risk of doing that? Would it be worth using JavaScript and/or redirecting them through another URL to be double-sure or would that be overkill? (Also not just from a Google point of view but from Live and Yahoo as well)
"We've got a few sites which have related content (not duplicate) which we'd like to cross link. This is purely from a user's advantage and in no way are we trying to manipulate PR." If all sites are yours, and they are relevant to each other, then I guess interlinking between them is not a problem. You don't need to use no follow tags, as these are not paid links.
Google states that excessive cross links are prohibited. I still wonder if nofollow will solve the problem.
I always interlink between relevant sites without using nofollow, but only where the link is appropriate. It's often the easiest way to get a new site off the ground if you have other related sites. I never saw an example of sites being penalised for sensible interlinking and think the worst that can happen is the links get ignored. Someone please correct me if they believe they have a definite example that proves otherwise. Thinking about it, why would they be penalised? I can choose to set up one big site about my niche, or use subdomains, or directories, or a handful of small sites and it shouldn't make any difference which method I choose. As it happens I have a few smaller sites - slightly different target audience and so on, but assume I won't suffer because of it. I wouldn't add all sites to the footers of all the other sites involved - but I know a large group that does and they have not been penalised - in fact they do very well.
I would definitely not use the redirect method. It all depends on the quality of site you are linking to. If it is a well known site with a much greater PR than yours, you won't even need the nofollow. If it is a competing site with yours, but has good information, I would use the nofollow
If you own site A and site B as long as the majority of links on the pages in A are not to B then link without using nofollow.
Do whatever link you think it will benefit your visitors. Google said "Make pages primarily for users, not for search engines." So you just add link, no html editor will add nofollow staff into a link.
just do your linking and never think about Google ever. nothing bad will happen unless you link to 10,000 pages overnight. do a good architechture and linking structure to pages you think are related and will benefit the user experience.
Hmm ok but can you explain one this that if i have posted few links of some categeory in my blog sidebar , will they also heart me . You can check my blog http://digitalmail.blogspot.com . here i have posted links in sidebar of my blogpost can they hurt me or not .
atulperx, are they all your sites? Whether they are or not, having a few related links to decent sites in a blogroll will not harm you. Sold links and 'paid entry' blogs are usually very obvious at a glance (unrelated blogroll links, three links per post with carefully chosen anchor text etc) and yours doesn't look like one. You have nothing to worry about. Although my own main site has lost almost all its PR, presumably because google think I sell links - which is kind of amusing, because I don't. So I guess they can go wrong sometimes. But there's not a lot we can do about that.
Are both the sites on the same C class ip? If they are on different, it is fine to cross link without nofollow. There is no harm crosslinking with nofollow. The statement about excessive crosslinking not being allowed is referring to a link from every page. If you really want to you can create a separate site for a portfolio of your sites. That way none of the sites will be linked directly. They will all be linking to "your site network page". hope that helps
Well, maby what I will say is a bit controversial, but I have a small bunch of tourism/museums related sites, about 5 of them... and know what, I have cross-linked them together without using nofollow. I have had no adverse reactions from Google or other search engines and it's been going on for more than 5 years. The only time I have used nofollow was for two blogs that were on different topics, so I wanted to exchange the visitors but didn't want to let the bots pass.
I crosslink my sites... even though they are on the same IP address. But I use max 2 outbound link for each of the sites...