Do you link your sites together?

mikey3times

mikey3times

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I think this is a newbie question and I can't seem to identify the right search query to find an answer.

Do you link your sites together if they are in different niches? Or if they are very distantly related?

I have an LLC that I used to start a site back in 200X. It gets about 400,000 pageviews a month. Evergreen. I don't have to work on it and it easily maintains traffic. DA in the low 50s. Sadly, I haven't monetized well. I have a section in the footer that says "Other Company Websites" and it links to some very small sites or subdomains that are very related to the main site. However, I also have a link to a very distantly related new site...

The new site is under the same LLC (meaning it has the same copyright company) and has started to get some traffic and have better monetization options. Very small. Very new. Moz doesn't even register a DA. I'm excited about this project and I'm spending my time on it knowing I can go back to the big site later if it doesn't work out.

I'm just learning about disavowing links. I don't know anything about PBNs other than I don't want to play that game.

So my question: is it bad to link from the bigger site to the smaller site in the footer? That means I have hundreds of links from the big site. I have seen some other large sites like Conde Nast do this so I think it might be OK.

What do you all think -- keep the links or remove them? Or maybe just use the About page to link between the sites?
 
You'll see tons of big media companies doing this too, where they'll link to all their other sites in totally different niches in the footers or even in the top menu.

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In my mind, the distinction is between being like:

"Hey, there's another thing I do..."

and actively trying to sneakily scheme.

I've pondered this and talked to SEO people about it, y'know, in case I ever have a media empire of my own.

I don't really know what would differentiate the two scenarios. Maybe the brand anchor link vs. having contextual keyword anchors?

It's also possible that they get certain clearances or leeway in situations where a smaller site might get dinged by a manual review, but I don't know for sure.

Looking forward to hearing other people's take on this.
 
I don't do the footer thing, cause I think it is probably something Google discounts a lot. If you were around for a while, you might remember blogroll links or theme footer links, which Google slapped hard.

What I do is link from an internal page to another relevant internal page on another site.
 
I wouldn't do it personally. Seems one of those things only big brands can get away with.
 
Not worth it, IMO. Just get links from places. The world is your oyster.
 
You can link your sites together in the way real brands do and it's not a problem.

As soon as you start manipulating the flow of page rank you're in trouble. As soon as you compromise the backlink profile of one, you risk them all.

It all depends on how "above water" you operate, or how many connections and how much money or influence you hold in order to quickly fix the problems once they occur (Like Genius.com managed to do, now take a look at who invests in them and the connections this guy has).

But the bottomline is yes, you can do anything real brands do. You can build the trust of being a brand in Google's eyes too and be shielded from a lot of nonsense others throw at you and even some shifty things you do yourself. Trust and authority go a long way. Also, money talks and bullshit walks.

To be fair, I don't link my sites together, partially because I don't build huge media conglomerates with 20 site profiles. I'd like to, and I wouldn't hesitate to link my network together in the footer or in a top-most header.
 
@Ryuzaki Is it ok to link internal page from one site to internal page on another site? If you make sure it's relevant?
 
bernard said:
@Ryuzaki Is it ok to link internal page from one site to internal page on another site? If you make sure it's relevant?
Click to expand...

I'm sure you can get away with it to some degree, but I'm also sure that at some point you'll cross over into the line of PBN territory. Do as the biggest brands do. I'd keep it in the footer, myself, sitewide, with branded anchors, dofollow'd.

The problem with interlinking within posts across sites is that you'll be tempted to do it more and more as you begin to feel more comfortable and safe doing it. Eventually you'll do it every chance you get with the most tasty anchors. Ultimately you'll begin creating opportunities to do. And somewhere in there the line will be crossed.
 
Ryuzaki said:
I'm sure you can get away with it to some degree, but I'm also sure that at some point you'll cross over into the line of PBN territory. Do as the biggest brands do. I'd keep it in the footer, myself, sitewide, with branded anchors, dofollow'd.

The problem with interlinking within posts across sites is that you'll be tempted to do it more and more as you begin to feel more comfortable and safe doing it. Eventually you'll do it every chance you get with the most tasty anchors. Ultimately you'll begin creating opportunities to do. And somewhere in there the line will be crossed.
Click to expand...

Hmm ok.

I am sure you're right, I have done it only once pr. domain and only running down from older to newer site. I'll probably do it with a new site. I think one link with a brand anchor should be ok.

Another method I see used is to link to a intermediary.

Like "Part of BuSo Media" and then link to BuSo media, which links to your other sites.
 
If your link scheme is really functional I say do it. If it helps your "funnel" in a natural way that's a good reason for doing it.

Because it really helps you with your business objectives.

Now, SEO would be a second thought.
 
Hi - I'm thinking of creating a sister site to my current money site. It would be populated with 100% new content, and I'd look to build it up legitimately/nothing deceptive. It would fall in the same niche.

The question I have is - can I link these sites together? As part of 1 network or brand.
The 2nd site I could get started on an expired domain with good authority.

What are you thoughts? Thanks!
 
I'm kinda contrarian. Most other people around here are into authority building and shit so you will probably get a lot of opposing perspectives.

I say.
Go for it and keep going for it.
Build more of them just so you can see what happens.
Just keep right on hair splitting and branding.
In my experience finding content opportunities that self acquire links is easier when you brand narrow.
You can double down on a site and expand it at any time if you find something that is winning.

Weird observation - Home pages are the most powerful page and get treated better by the everything compared to non home pages. Even sites that struggle to rank can usually game their home pages in for something with a title tag if they have sufficient brand fire power and little optimization. ( * massive amounts of exceptions apply)
 
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