Let’s say I have 15 websites all in the same geo and all of them covering the surfing industry in a different way (lessons, boards, waves, shirts, weather, hotels, clubs, etc..). All the sites have quality and original content. They would link together very nicely but I don’t want search engines to see me as a network of sites. Which I kind of am. I have considered bring all the content under one url but I am also thinking about linking them all together as if they were independent sites linking to other relevant sites. What do you think?
It's a good idea to build one website instead of a network of little ones with the intention to make yourself look more important to a search engine than you are are.
Use separate sites. Link them together by quoting each other and commenting on the quote. Reviews also work. However, the SE's might see through all this if all your sites are hosted on the same machine using the same webserver IP. My suggestion: Use differing Class Cs.
Is it better to have 10 of the smaller sites linking to the big one. And not having the big one link back to the smaller sites? These sites are relevent to each other.
use the big site > small site linking patern. small site b,c,d,e,f,g etc --->BIG SITE A = nearly topical related like entertainment, business or health in their own respective clusters E.G. celebrities and movies , kidneys and babies lol you get the point BIG SITE A ----> BIG SITE C BIG SITE C ----> BIG SITE D just don't create a loop and you will stay fine