Cross site linking but is this not crazy - and your opinion is?

I dont proclaim to be an SEO expert but apart from running my owning sites which I have always done, I work for a very large independent private company.

I dont guide the SEO practices but I have a question.

There cross linking the content of the site (no harm in that) and basic, I had a conversation today to a colleaguse where I gave my opinion saying, cross linking using "just about" readable grey text on a white background, is not beneficial for a user as not a navigation tool and looks like "SEO for dummys" if someone looked at the site would think

a) not beneficial for the user
b) was an overly basic "I read this in a SEO blog"

I wont say what the site is, but its high profile and my logic is that if the WSJ.com in the morning started to implement this method as an SEO it would be regarded as SEO by 10yr olds

What do you think? and I apprecitae this thread could just become an opinion piece

 

I think i would rather have a site directory and list the urls thier.

 

true. and again I am not part of this process but question it. Its a heavily indexed site and my question remains the same

If for link popularity you decide to add "suggested content" or "similar results" etc.... with my original methods applied is this not just bad SEO

Its not an AFF site, its for a large private company.

Ultimatley I am questioning the person who is in charge of our SEO practise
for suggesting this.

I have very little say inthe process, been working online for the last 10yrs thats wy I made the point this could be more of a debate than anything else

But thought I may find some logic through it all

 

If the site is of related content, sure why not? That goes for any cross-linking. Google isn't the authority for cross-linking, but they like to see that you keep your link on-topic, as it helps define what your site is about - which is used for ranking purposes.

 

Cross-linking of your own sites is not good. Google will look at the Sub-Net IP address and see that your are cross linking on your own server. Both sites will suffer.

Been there, done that. You must have different IP addresses to even think about doing this.