9 replies to this topic

[andyfreefly1]

Hi,

I work for a corporate B2B publishing company, who have a large portfolio of dynamic websites, publishing daily news and information across a number of differing industry sectors.

Every website within this portfolio is currently linked via a 'Corporate' links panel linking all company websites, but I have some concerns in regard to the effectiveness of this linking arrangement from a relevancy perspective.

At present, sites featuring information and data on agriculture for example, are linked to sites relating to aerospace, therefore linking content that is not in any way relevant.

On the positive side, the majority of company sites have a Google PR of between 5 and 9 and have a differing range of IP C block addresses, but I am wondering if this current arrangement is actually doing more harm than good from an SEO perspective?

I am thinking about removing this 'Corporate' links panel from all company sites, and putting more focus on vertical market linking strategies.

Any thoughts or advice on this will be appreciated

Thanks in advance!

Andy

[Jill]

Andy, does it make sense to have those links on the pages? In other words, did you have them there long before anyone thought that linking might increase rankings?

Those other sites are part of the company. It makes sense that the company would want to showcase all their sites in some way, doesn't it?

One thing I don't understand is why you have the sites on a different range if IP C blocks. The only reason to do that would be if you wanted the engines to think that the sites were NOT related. Obviously, you have no reason to do that as they ARE related.

The best thing you can do is forget about the search engines for a minute. Then think about the best way to showcase all the sites this company owns. Showcasing them for those that visit the sites. Put search engines completely out of your mind when you do this. (I'm pretty sure you never would have done the different c block thingee, if you were thinking this way to begin with, because it never would have entered your mind.)

It's unfortunate that people read bits of SEO advice here and there and it makes them SCARED! The search engines really aren't out to get you and your sites. They want to list sites and they want their searchers to find what they're looking for.

The only thing they can't stand is those sites that set out to purposely try to gain an unfair advantage through deception. It sure doesn't sound like your company is out to deceive anyone, so why worry about it?

[Michael Martinez]

How are your rankings? If you are hitting your targets, you have nothing to worry about.

[andyfreefly1]

Hi Jill,

Thanks for your reply

I have been trying to look at this from a corporate, user and SE prospective, although I know putting the user first, ultimately makes sense from an SEO perspective.

This links panel was originally suggested and added by another person within the company, to improve SEO and drive traffic across company sites. From a user prospective, common sense tells me that an aerospace executive is unlikely to be looking for news on agriculture for example, so removing, or streamlining the links panel, makes more sense to me.

I guess my main concern is that linking to non-relevant content may damage, rather than enhance the ranking of our pages. Our sites are related because we are part of the same company, but they are not related by actual content.

I was under the impression (maybe wrongly) that having all our sites on the same IP C block would suggest an un-natural network, and links would be penalised or discounted by SE's. I guess this also relates to the above point; we are linked by company, but not by content, therefore from an SE perspective we wanted the sites not to appear related.

In hindsight, maybe this is not the best approach?

Thanks for your help so far

Andy

[andyfreefly1]

Hi Michael,

I have only recently been employed to look at search marketing across the company, so have a lot to work on from an SEO perspective.

I guess at this stage, I am trying to identify if this current linking arrangement could negatively affect the ranking of our content?

Andy

[Jill]

This links panel was originally suggested and added by another person within the company, to improve SEO and drive traffic across company sites.

Probably not a good idea then.

From a user prospective, common sense tells me that an aerospace executive is unlikely to be looking for news on agriculture for example

More confirmation that it's probably not a good idea.

so removing, or streamlining the links panel, makes more sense to me.

I think streamlining might very well be the way to go. Figure out ways where it makes sense to the human visitors. Certainly there's nothing wrong with a company promoting their other business areas. And just by saying something like "we also have websites in these industries" and then linking to them, should not be a problem.

It's doubtful that those types of links would need to be sitewide, however. It would make more sense to link to them from a Corporate page, or an about us, or something like that.

I guess my main concern is that linking to non-relevant content may damage, rather than enhance the ranking of our pages. Our sites are related because we are part of the same company, but they are not related by actual content.

By being part of the company, that IS a good relationship. There's nothing wrong with links to stuff that is in a different industry. Relationships between sites is not something that is easily detected. For instance, almost everyone travels, right? So is it unrelated to have a link to travel information on a site selling diapers? It seems like it would be, but if you have the same target market then it's more related then you might think.

Are TV shows wrong to show commercials for products that have nothing to do with what the show is all about? Why is an ad for a Hummer related to the show "Friends"?

In the same vein, what if I had a "Friends" website. Would it be wrong of me to link to the Hummer site? Or vice-versa.

You can't be worried too much about relevance, because there's no real way of judging it, nor should there be. We don't know what's in people's heads. What they might be interested in may not be what someone else thinks is relevant. But that won't ever be a problem to search engines. There's no way they would go around banning sites because they link to something that's a completely different industry.

It just would defy common sense completely. Search engineers are way smarter than that.

I was under the impression (maybe wrongly) that having all our sites on the same IP C block would suggest an un-natural network, and links would be penalised or discounted by SE's.

Well see in my opinion, by putting them on separate C's you've now suggested an unnatural network where there was a natural one before. Natural that one company would link to all their own sites. It's much more unnatural for separate companies to link to completely unrelated stuff.

Hope this provides you and others with some food for thought.

[Michael Martinez]

This links panel was originally suggested and added by another person within the company, to improve SEO and drive traffic across company sites. From a user prospective, common sense tells me that an aerospace executive is unlikely to be looking for news on agriculture for example, so removing, or streamlining the links panel, makes more sense to me.

There could be all sorts of business reasons for wanting to know what relationships a company has to other industries. Potential investors, potential employees, potential vendors may all want to know about those relationships.

I guess my main concern is that linking to non-relevant content may damage, rather than enhance the ranking of our pages.

It won't hurt you in the least.

I was under the impression (maybe wrongly) that having all our sites on the same IP C block would suggest an un-natural network, and links would be penalised or discounted by SE's.

Nope. Too many people have over-analyzed some Google patents and papers. They got caught up in the details and started spreading myths around the SEO world.

I guess this also relates to the above point; we are linked by company, but not by content, therefore from an SE perspective we wanted the sites not to appear related.

That is a meaningless, irrelevant concern. Do what makes sense for your visitors.

[Michael Martinez]

Hi Michael,

I have only recently been employed to look at search marketing across the company, so have a lot to work on from an SEO perspective.

I guess at this stage, I am trying to identify if this current linking arrangement could negatively affect the ranking of our content?

Andy

Cross-promotion doesn't usually hurt your search engine rankings. I do it all the time. But you need to do it for your visitors, not for the search engines.

[andyfreefly1]

Many thanks Jill

I plan to change the existing arrangement to a number of smaller, related vertical market link panels, and add one related panel to each site.

This can be positioned below. or as part of, the footer on the home page, as opposed to part of the site-wide template.

Thanks again for all your help.

Andy

[andyfreefly1]

Michael,

Many thanks for your comments.

Seperating 'fact' from 'fiction' in regard to Google is sometimes difficult!

I appreciate your advice

Andy