Should I link my similar sites together?

[Blendfish]

Hi

I currently have two sites within exactly the same market.  I've just purchased a third website from someone.

Should I link these sites together? (i.e. in the page header should I cross link them or point two of them to the third?)

If I do this will it harm them if they are on the same C-Class IP blocks?  Is using private domains and different hosting companies considered dodgey in any way?

Basically I'm a big wimp and don't want to do anything potentially that might potentially hurt my rankings;)

[BenFox]

Unless the branding is drastically different on them I would personally consider amalgamating them into one super site.

Linking to yourself in this way probably won't have a negative affect on your rankings (not in isolation anyway) but why manage three medium sized sites when you could have one awesomeamazingkickass site instead?

[jim_cetin]

I agree with Ben on managing 3 sites if it is the same content or products|services.

There are other possible solution, which will depend on:

1.Do you sell the same products/services on each domain?

Yes: Well you can do that, without any issues, but if the content is duplicate and you are going to link all 3 domains together, can and possibly will cause issues.

No: Then, there's nothing to be worried about "cross sell on 3 domains".

There are other possibility's, which only you can answer, that is why it's always a good idea to provide more info when asking for input!

[Blendfish]

Thanks for the replies.

Linking the sites together would be difficult as they are marketed at different segments.

The main sites are well known and marketed to different segments, (free and professional.) People search for them by brand so I wouldn't want to merge them, + that's too many eggs in one basket for my liking.

The third site is a branded toolkit containing the same services plus a couple of others.  It's already had a PR7 site in a related niche merged into a sub folder about a year ago.

My plan was to link (either one way or reciprocal) the free and professional sites to the under-performing mixed bag one.

There is no duplicate content but if anything could cause a problem then I won't do it.