Interlinking Mini-Sites

Been reading the forums for some time now, and (as a confirmed non-techie), would be most appreciative of the benefits of your advice.

I have been collecting domain names, for several years, with the intention of using them for the purposes of my own business, (entirely unrelated to domains or computing). As a result, I own a pile of names, some of which are very relevant, exact match domains, within my professional sphere. To draw an analogy, if I were in the motor trade (which I am not), the names may have been along the lines of engines.co.uk, gearbox.co.uk, windscreen.co.uk … you get the picture. (okay, and some less attractive ones too!). Nearly all are .co.uk.

Just as an indication of how disinterested and inept I have been, the majority of the names have been pointed at lists of competitors’ sites by the company through which I purchased them … for years! A couple of names which I have deliberately let drop, have been picked up by Edwin, which presumably means I also lack commercial nous !!

Anyway, in a new found rush of unaccustomed enthusiasm, I’ve decided to extract a digit, lick the cleanest bit, and test the wind. My initial thoughts (to prove I’m tight as well as lazy) are to put up a series of mini-sites, possibly individually designed, maybe Wordpress and I’m even considering using the templates provided by the company where they’re registered. Each site would be on a specific topic with an exact matching domain. Some would provide straightforward information and contact details, and some would be used to sell a product or service.

My question is if, taking this approach, I would be putting myself at risk of incurring the wrath of the Google Monster, by having each mini-site contain links to all the other sites. As suggested, it would genuinely be for people to link to separate but related topics of relevance, not simply to scatter-gun some links around.

Your thoughts, comments or better suggestions would be most welcome (especially if they are in words I understand). Thank you.

 

You would likely get slapped for a link farm type affair.

You could use multiple webhosts for smaller sets, but it wouldn't be really be worth it. If the links are ultra relevant between quality sites and not crazy amounts, should be fine but wy would you want to interlink ? surely linking to affiliates or similar makes more sense ?

 

"Content" is the only long-term strategy..

 

Thank you for your replies -much appreciated

I anticipate the the written content would be relevantly structured and of decent quality, even if the structure of the sites were relatively basic, such as Wordpress or other template.

The intention would be largely that enquiries from any of the sites, in different (but closely correlated) areas, would feed back to my own business. There would not necessarily be a "sale" suitable for an affiliate scheme.

I can see the logic of not wanting to appear to be starting a link farm, and I suspect that automated systems may be more likely to identify it as such, than human input.

Would it be significantly less risky (in terms of potential search engine penalty) if I simply put a link to our main Company website in each of the mini-sites? Presumably a return link would be acceptable, if the mini-sites were not interlinking?

 

Linking those sites together, or to your main site, would not help rankings unless all these domain names you own have some strong backlinks from other sites, or what you are trying to rank for has 0 competition.

Just for arguments sake we pretended they would help rankings, they would all be hosted on the same IP address so a very obvious manipulation and google wouldn't rank you for too long.

The whole idea sounds like a waste of time to me.

 

The thinking behind linking such sites was the cross-selling opportunities for the business, not to improve SEO. Using the original motoring analogy, if someone is on a site about engines, they may also be interested in gearboxes, so if the business were also involved in gearboxes ... and so on.

I want to be sure I wouldn't be causing myself potential search engine penalties - which it sounds like my original idea would do, from what's been said so far.

 

Just nofollow the links then.

Don't expect to get any visitors just by putting sites up though.

 

Thank you - I wasn't aware of that option

I may be technically inept, but I have realistic expectations!
Thanks again.

 

don't take the slight negativity you will get to heart, there are many many many no-hopers and 1 hit wonders and flashes in the pan etc, and peoples patience is thin until you've been around a while and demonstrated you're in it for real kinda thing.

 

I'm certainly not put off by negativity (despite being a "If The Glass Is Only Half Full, It's Time For A Refill" type) and would always prefer honest opinions.

I don't pretend to be a domainer, as the domains I have bought over the years have largely been for my own eventual business use ('though I've also bought several wholly irrelevant ones, just because they were available - and which I really should try to sell sometime).

The advice freely given to an "outsider" is therefore particularly gratefully received, and I have learned things today by asking, as well as having absorbed information over my lurking years.

 

If you want to interlink the sites the way to go is either multiple low cost hosting accounts or a single company offering SEO hosting - they split the sites over several areas (called c-class ips)

Jay

 

ok so I has to say how to do it, if you blokes won't mutter and utter.

To interlink your sites without upsetting Gargyl, you don't need to split your domain accounts, but you do need to split your site hosting. Gargyl only targets linked sites on the same webspace, it don't look at domain hosting accounts at the moment.

No 1 is learn how to fling up a HTML site on a free template. You can look at 1123666999.com and learn how to do that. HTML/css because such sites occupy a small webspace footprint,and the cyberburglars do not target such sites because WP sites offer richer pickings.

That is not the easiest way to throw up a site but it is designed to weed out complete twots and give people with naus a way forward, for no money.

If you link between sites on the same hosting Gargyl gets stroppy and says you are related. Matt Cutts can link to his wife every night and get away with that, but if Gargyl ever noticed it could be big trouble.

Keep the hosting separate from anything the site links to. I use two cheap paid hosts and three free hosts to keep things apart.

Whatever you build, make it link back through at least two other host addresses to get the juice flowing. To use the free hosts you need to build HTML sites, because WP is big footprint, and to make life awkward the free hosts impose file size limits. You can get WP on there, one piece at a time, but no help, no support and not much footprint left when y do that. Whatever. Easier to avoid it anyway.

places you can get free hosting include Awardspace, 5quidhost and 110mb. If you also pay for cheapo hosting on 5quidhost you get a separate IP if you register the free account in your mum's/dad's/granny's name (and there's a lot of that about, using other peoples' details to get into free hosting deals). ETC. Did I mention RelicHost?

Don't try an direct link swaps, triangular links Gargyl looks for these days, you need at least four "hosting" links to be able to link between your own sites. Use free hosts to get the links going and keep costs down.