2 Whitehat sites linking to each other? Bad?

spectrejoe · Dec 2, 2016

Ok so you own several websites, whitehat niches, nothing wrong with them, no reason to get penalized etc etc.

Is it bad if they link to each other? I mean like both sites having something like "Partners" or "Sponsored by:"
and then a link to the other site.

2 way link basically

bartosimpsonio · Dec 2, 2016

As long as it's not a sitewide link, it should be no problem. Also if both sites are verified by same person on GWT and/or on the same IP they'll be worth only for traffic, the juice they'll pass will be negligible.

spectrejoe · Dec 2, 2016

bartosimpsonio said:
As long as it's not a sitewide link, it should be no problem. Also if both sites are verified by same person on GWT and/or on the same IP they'll be worth only for traffic, the juice they'll pass will be negligible.

Most of the links are indeed sitewide, but it's not big sites anyways, maximum 30-40 pages. Should I limit it to homepage?

Also are you sure that links between sites that are in the same GWT will pass no juice?

bartosimpsonio · Dec 2, 2016

spectrejoe said:
Most of the links are indeed sitewide, but it's not big sites anyways, maximum 30-40 pages. Should I limit it to homepage?

Also are you sure that links between sites that are in the same GWT will pass no juice?

Sitewide links are a no-no in that case man.

Yeah, sites between your own properties counts as voting for yourself. Most they will do is the anchor text will help Google determine what the next site is about, but its weight is gonna be almost zero. I can't say "it'll pass no juice" as only google knows that, but certainly it's gonna be very weak signal.

spectrejoe · Dec 2, 2016

bartosimpsonio said:
Sitewide links are a no-no in that case man.

Yeah, sites between your own properties counts as voting for yourself. Most they will do is the anchor text will help Google determine what the next site is about, but its weight is gonna be almost zero. I can't say "it'll pass no juice" as only google knows that, but certainly it's gonna be very weak signal.

Alright, well what's done is done I guess then haha. If I notice any rank drops I'll just remove the link and see what happens.

Although I did add a sitewide link and a 4-5 days old article from a brand new domain went straight to #16 and #5 to a LSI. Never had faster results in a 1 week old domain lol. But then again it may be just for now until the sitewide link messes everything up

validseo · Dec 2, 2016

bartosimpsonio said:
As long as it's not a sitewide link, it should be no problem.

While there is risk of manual action by doing this... I rank sites all the time with sitewide footer links. Technically it works great and has for years.

bartosimpsonio said:
Also if both sites are verified by same person on GWT and/or on the same IP they'll be worth only for traffic, the juice they'll pass will be negligible.

This myth actually isn't true. Nearly all my sites are verified in the same GSC account and are hosted on the same IP and some of them are page 1 for high competition keywords using 100% exact match footer links. (again, not a recommended practice because of the risk of penalties, but clearly disproves the myth.)

Hambone Oblivion · Dec 2, 2016

Thanks for this thread, was wondering the same thing. Thank you.

spectrejoe · Dec 2, 2016

validseo said:
While there is risk of manual action by doing this... I rank sites all the time with sitewide footer links. Technically it works great and has for years.

This myth actually isn't true. Nearly all my sites are verified in the same GSC account and are hosted on the same IP and some of them are page 1 for high competition keywords using 100% exact match footer links. (again, not a recommended practice because of the risk of penalties, but clearly disproves the myth.)

Interesting.

Idk if google would actually give a manual penalization for something like a sitewide link between sites owned by the same person, UNLESS it's done from several sites. If it's just a single 2 way link or so I don't think there's much of a problem and you just gotta remove the link if anything happens anyways

validseo · Dec 2, 2016

spectrejoe said:
Interesting.

Idk if google would actually give a manual penalization for something like a sitewide link between sites owned by the same person, UNLESS it's done from several sites. If it's just a single 2 way link or so I don't think there's much of a problem and you just gotta remove the link if anything happens anyways

That's what I think too, as I have been doing this forever and haven't been penalized ever for it, but I'm not confident enough to call it safe either... but it is one of the stronger tools in the toolbox for me.

Nonilol · Dec 2, 2016

Are you guys sure you get penalized if you link all your sites together?
I mean I understand those links are weak but I can't imagine Google to punish me for telling my visitors what other websites I've done.
I've been linking them all together for years. (only own 4 websites currently but still)

validseo · Dec 2, 2016

Nonilol said:
Are you guys sure you get penalized if you link all your sites together?
I mean I understand those links are weak but I can't imagine Google to punish me for telling my visitors what other websites I've done.
I've been linking them all together for years. (only own 4 websites currently but still)

Thats just it... the links aren't weak at all by my measure (maybe my sites pack a bigger punch). Like you, I have been doing the same for year. I don't know the mind of Google so that is where the fear an uncertainty come into play.

Banditoseo · Dec 3, 2016

Moz just had a Whiteboard on this: https://moz.com/blog/backlinks-maximize-benefits-avoid-problems-whiteboard-friday

Here's the punchline:

For sites that you own, so myothersite.com and mymainsite.com, what I'm going to suggest here is that you don't have an intentional specific link strategy like, "Okay, one out of three pages I'm going to have a link. I'm going to have them link to these pages in particular. I'm going to have the anchor text always be this." Don't set up that kind of policy or process. Instead, I want you to focus on providing visitor value. Reference things on your main site when they are relevant to content on your other site, and this should happen naturally and organically.

Anytime you're referencing other content you've created or things that you've done, or recognition that you have, or someone else from your organization, you would naturally link over here. That's the way you should play it, not with some specific process and checklist. Anything that matches a very standard pattern is going to be easily recognized by Google, and that can get you into trouble.

I agree with them completely: link naturally.

Someone above said that anything connecting the sites, like GSC, kills it. I completely disagree. Connecting the sites is a problem if both are built on piles of spam. If you're talking whitehat, then linking is natural. I had tremendous success with a 100% whitehat news site that had tons of "viral" and heavily-linked content and then no links to the money site except for a site-wide banner. Both were on the same GSC console.

In retrospect, I'd have probably done better to put in appropriate in-text links as well, but the site-wide banner correctly told Google that the news site was sponsored by the money site and that was totally fine and was extremely useful.

guardedsecret · Dec 3, 2016

Best to avoid then regret.

2 Whitehat sites linking to each other? Bad?

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