Link Building Question? Old sites Linking to New Authority Site [Help]

Hi guys,

I currently run a few niche sites however they've been ranked using links that are probably not very white hat but the sites are stable and ranking #1 and high for all other keywords.

My question is this: I'm going to be creating a new authority to cover all categories, should I link from the stable sites to my main site to boost authority/rankings? They're all in the same niche so I would only assume it'd be good to do, however I wanted to get peoples opinions on this matter.

Thanks.

If these sites are hosted on same IP or can be easily connected to your new sites, I wouldn't recommend that.

I would not touch stable sites as that could easily cause them to lose their serps.

How about if I just 301 the sites? or is that just stupid now?

IMO 301s are a red flag. I'd host the sites on completely different subnets and link from context.

If the main authoritative site is hosted on a different ip than the rest of your mini niche sites (and no obvious footprints like same adsense account etc) then you should be able to safely link from them to your new site and boost your new site's authority.

The niche sites's stable position should not be affected by an external link, especially if you make it conspicuous - placed in content, no sidebar/footer.

301 redirecting the niche sites is pretty risky if they rank in top and are stable, the 301 redirect takes some time to pass all the link juice to the new destination, and even so you lose some of that link juice - confirmed by google several times, not to mention that you lose your old content and niche sites for the moment. Is more of a hassle than a benefit i would say, unless you got your niche sites penalized don't 301 redirect them, hold to them.

Ahh, wouldn't be worth doing then, thanks for that Abstroose and Nick!