Multiple domains on the same hosting

[Arianittt]

Hello,

I have around 80 sites (different domains) which are on the same host. Everytime I look up the IP of these domains, it gives me the same IP.

The sites are interlinked, all linking to the main domain.

My question is: Does the off site link building have effect on the 80 sites?

[AdamThompson]

Google has almost certainly figured out that you own all the sites, and may have discounted the interlinking accordingly.

[Arianittt]

Thanks for the quick response.

I am a webmaster at a company, so the 80 sites are the websites of our clients.

What would you suggest me to do in this situation?

[William.Lau]

If these sites are all interlinking, it is best to remove those links. Google will most likely know and all sites will be penalized. Rectifying the problem will be a pain.

Now if that 80 sites are not interlinking and all on the same IP or same 'host', it won't matter.

The main problem is the interlinking of all the sites, which Google can easily identify.

[Arianittt]

The 80 sites are not linking to each-other, but they are all linking to one site, the site of the company I'm working for. Is this still a problem?

If yes, does the external link building have any effect on these 80 sites?

[AdamThompson]

Oh, OK. Well, there is some risk there. As William mentioned, you could possibly be penalized for what probably looks like manipulative linking to Google.

Do these links use keywords or your brand name as anchor text? If the former, the risk is even higher.

If the sites are unrelated (topic-wise) to your site, that also increases the risk.

[Arianittt]

The internal links use the company name I'm working for as anchor text, it's in fact the copyright in the footer that all these 80 sites have.

The external links to the 80 sites use keywords that are related to the content/service/product as anchor text.

Is it wrong having a back link from an external site to each of the 80 sites, because they are on the same 'host'?

[William.Lau]

This is not as bad as interlinking but it is still a bad idea. You can check this for example:

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/how-wpmuorg-recovered-from-the-penguin-update

It was similar to the footer links and the fact the sites are all on the same host could give it even more higher possibility to be affected.

[Arianittt]

Thanks, that was a great read.

I see that WPMU removed all the footer links from EDUblogs, but since I can't do so,  can I anyhow solve this by using nofollow on the 80 sites. If yes, how?

And can you give me an answer about external linking, does it have any effect when the sites are on the same 'host'?

[William.Lau]

External link building to each specific site will not harm you. Just make sure you are not doing anything shady. It is always best to play it safe because they are your clients.

You can nofollow it by using a similar tag to this:

 [ anchor text](exampleurl.com)

[AdamThompson]

What external site(s) is linking to the 80 sites?

(Are you saying that you have external sites that each link to all 80 of the sites? If so, that probably looks pretty shady to Google.)

[Arianittt]

No, every site has a different external link (related content).

Does it still look shady to Google?

[AdamThompson]

Oh, so each of the 80 sites includes a link to a different relevant, quality site? That should be fine!

[Arianittt]

Thanks a lot.

[Arianittt]

Yes, that's what I was trying to say, but I was wondering if the same hosting could be a problem.

Thanks for helping.

[MagicDude4Eva]

I would carefully monitor the reputation of the IP as well as the IP-range (and even the ASN) the IP falls within. If any of those loose reputation - for example if one of your 80 sites hosts a trojan, all your 80 sites will be flagged.

I personally would only host domains and subdomains on the same IP but would not share an IP with multiple domains.

I have seen several sites completely die due to IP reputation issues.

[NeilD]

I have been reading this with interest.

So, in a situation where we host our client sites  (that we design) on the same IP as our own site is it ok to include a link on the client site home page footer (as agreed with client) that links to a specific project page on our website for that client e.g they are not linking to our home page?

[karimg]

Linking from a client site back to your site isn't a great way to go, even though the pages are related the topical relation is really from your project page to their site.

I would have the usual clients/projects section on your site with links to your projects, but any link back from them to you should be nofollow. Having a site-wide footer link is not going to do you many favours anyway, and if it is just from their homepage footer it has less potential negative impact but is still not a real endorsement.