I have a question about Site A linking to Site B... - both websites are on the same server - I am not looking to link to Site B for keyword purposes. I have heard linking your second site to your first site can get you some bad results in the long run when it comes to google..I would however like to include a banner on Site A, back to Site B, in a way which makes it seem like i am not linking for backlink of keyword purposes... Is there a way to do this or am i restricted to just including a link in text form without the hyperlink on it? Could i easily just add a banner to my sidebar and add no follow tags to it and not have to worry? Or will google still recognize that Site A and Site B are somewhat of a network?
There is no problem linking your own sites together even if they're on the same server...as long as they are related. Don't over do it like putting a site wide link from every page of site A to every page on site B (and visa versa). Instead, pick some pages where the link would be valuable to your visitors and make the links.
Agreed. With linking, you should forget about PR, about penalties, about Google, or any SEO. Ask yourself the question if that specific link in that place is going to be useful for the visitors of the site. If it is, add it. SEO is not about little tricks or unwritten rules. If you make a website for the visitors, that is easy to navigate, has useful information and link to other useful resources (and back) then you are doing the right thing. Google will not penalize you for creating a good and useful site.