Should I 'nofollow' links between my own sites?

[simon_realbuzz]

We have five sites which are largely unrelated but for cross-promotional purpose our company wishes to cross link between all our sites, possibly in the footer.

I have warned about potential consequences of cross-linking in this way and certainly don't want our sites to be viewed as some sort of 'link ring' if they all link to one another.

Just wondering if linking between sites you own really is that much of an issue and whether we should  'nofollow' the links in order to prevent being slapped with any sort of penalty for cross-linking.

[MalcolmGibb]

If I were you I would most probably nofollow those links in the footer. It also depends on how you link them, I would avoid any exact match anchor text that links the sites in the footer as this does not provide any value and Google is known to target this method.

If it were brand sites say on different cTLDs like .co.uk, .com, .ca etc. then it would be ok to not use the nofollow, however as you mention they are largely unrelated. Cross-linking within the footer (sitewide) without a nofollow may end up looking like a link wheel or network.

If there is relevance in having those links, keep them but nofollow them and avoid using exact match anchors.

[donford]

Hi Simon

BobGW last a very similar question last week in which elicited some nice responses from the community.

My advice is it is not hurtful to follow link them as long as we talking a few sites, but I would not do it site-wide like in the footer. Rather an example of a site we own which only links to the family sites on 1 page (where it made the most sense).

Hope that helps,

Don

[simon_realbuzz]

Thanks Malcolm and Don for your responses. My feeling it that we should avoid linking site wide from the footer and maybe just link from the home page and no other and also 'nofollow' these links.

[irvingw]

Nofollow all of the links between your sites and you can cross-promote all you want, safely. Link sitewide, in the footer wherever you like as long as they are nofollowed. .

If you are doing it for SEO though, I would probably not do that unless the sites are hosted in different places and ownership is not exposed. If they are completely separate you can one way link from the homepage (homepage only is best because it's always spidered and the homepage usually has the most PR) of the lesser sites to the main site.

It sounds to me though that this is for cross promotional and not for SEO so just nofollow them since that is completely safe. Just keep in mind that each place you nofollow a link to your other site you throw away a little bit of PR that would otherwise be passed to your internal pages.

[simon_realbuzz]

Thanks Irving. Yes, our marketing department would like to cross-promote our other sites, so the SEO element is not our main concern here. Clearly nofollow the links seems the best policy to ensure we cross link without falling foul of Google.