How To Advantage Of Cross-Linking For Your Websites?
Like many other topics we’ve covered in link strategies, cross-linking is one of those practices that isn’t black or white but more accurately has dozens of subtle shades of gray. Cross-linking is the practice of linking several sites together, usually sites that are owned by the same company or indi- vidual. A group of six sites connected by a cross-linking scheme might look something like the dia- gram shown in Figure 13-1.
Notice how the cross-linked sites are connected and that every site has the same number of links coming into and leaving the page. This is a pattern that search engines look for to determine if web sites are using linking schemes simply to increase their search engine results rankings- a practice that search engines frown upon. Additionally, cross-linking happens most often with people or companies who own multiple web sites, and that also gives the search engine reason to doubt the validity of the links.
So, how do search engines know if one person owns all of the sites that are cross-linked? The struc- ture of a set of cross-linked sites is the first clue. A group of sites that have naturally occurring links might look more like the diagram shown in Figure 13-2.
Other factors that may help a search engine decide that all the sites are owned by the same person are the IP address of the site and the WHOIS information. The IP address is unique to each different web site. Two sites that are owned by the same company are usually hosted on the same server, and so the IP address of those sites would be the same. And WHOIS information is the record of domain ownership. You’re required to provide this information when you purchase a web site.
When sites owned by the same company or individual are cross-linked, search engines look very closely to ensure that the sites are relevant to each other. If they are, then there are no issues with the cross-linking. For sites that are not related, however, search engines look down upon the prac- tice of cross-linking and your site (or sites) could be penalized for search engine spamming.
It’s also likely to throw up a red flag when you’re cross-linking hundreds or even thousands of sites. When this occurs, the only real configuration that makes sense is a link farm or set of link farms. And search engines don’t like link farms at all. If you want to get your sites completely delisted. from the search engine, then set up and take part in a link farm. It will just be a matter of time before your sites are bounced into oblivion.
So, cross-linking isn’t always a bad thing. There are times when it works nicely. And the main require- ment is that sites have something in common so that the links would have occurred naturally anyway. Another thing that helps to keep cross-linking a legitimate linking strategy is for every site to have unique content. If you’ve created a handful of different sites with exactly the same content on all of them, search engines are going to take notice and your sites will be penalized.
As long as you’re using cross-linking in a legitimate way, there’s no reason you should avoid it com- pletely. But like all the other linking strategies, use it wrong and you’ll pay the price.
