I have 2 E-commerce sites - Can i cross link?
-
Good Morning Everyone,
I have 2 e-commerce websites that are similar and sell the same products.
The content (text/descriptions/titles) is different so the content is not duplicate.
SITE A has a ton of blog posts with highly relevant information and we frequently update the blog with posts about the types of products we carry and how it can help people in their daily lives...
SITE B has no blog posts, but the content on the blog from SITE A is extremely relevant and helpful to anyone using SITE B.
My question is, do you think it is frowned upon if i were to add links on SITE B that point to specific posts on SITE A...
For example, if you are browsing a category page on SITE B, i was thinking of adding links on the bottom that would say
"For More Information, Please Check Out These Posts on our Blog"
I think this would seriously help our browsers and potential customers get all of the information that they need, but what do you think Google would think about this cross-linking and if it violates their guidelines?
Thanks for any opinions and advice.
-
Yes correct, I was talking from a purely SEO perspective
-
Hey Alan,
Thanks for the input
I understand what you are saying but here is why i think it is beneficial:
For argument's sake, let's say both SITE A and SITE B sell Hammers...
Site A sells hammers of all kinds and Site A also has a blog full of useful and frequently updated content about all different types of hammers and how to use them and where to use them and how they can help people in certain situations etc...
Site B sells hammers of all kinds, but does not have all of the blog posts that contain the useful and helpful information that may help a consumer make their decision. We were thinking taking a category page from SITE B (for example, wooden handled hammers) and adding links to roughly 2-3 blog posts from SITE A that talk about Wooden Handled Hammers, specifically.
Wouldn't you agree that these links would help the user/consumer? While it may pass link juice, the main goal is to help get the helpful information in front of the consumer.
Thoughts?
-
no problem at all with google.
The only problem I see, sending link juice to SiteA from SiteB.
To the search engine its like following a sign saying elevator, going into a room and seeing another sign that says elevator and so on, until your in the elevator and no more signs to follow, they think well this must be it. If your page is about dogs, you don't want to link out from your page to another page about dogs. -
Thanks for the feedback guys - appreciate it
-
I think that as long as you no-follow the links so that Google doesn't think you are trying to gain benefit in this manner, then it should be fine. The links as you suggest, are towards the bottom of the page, and Google should see this - perhaps mention that the blog posts will open on a new site and keep the anchor text neutral.
"For More Information, Please Check Out These Posts on our Blog (__Opens up new site)"
-Andy
-
Hi Andy,
Thanks for your input -
The blogs posts originate on SITE A.
However, some visitors find us through SITE B and therefore we want to help those on SITE B get all of the relevant information that we have available (the blogs from SITE A).
So - anyone who comes to SITE B will now be able to find all of our relevant content that is on SITE A and it will help them learn more about our products and make a decision.
Make sense? Your thoughts on how this would look under the Google microscope?
Thanks
-
Think about how this would look to Google if they were to inspect the site under a microscope. Would they question why the blog posts are on site B and not posted on Site A? What is the reason for not posting them on Site A? Are you wanting to cross-link for no other purpose other than for the benefit of the site visitors?
-Andy
-
It's perfectly normal to link two sites together like this. It can be useful to site visitors, and it's also very common. The problem comes when you have dozens of websites cross-linking together in some sort of link network.
More information
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Do you still loose 15% of value of inbound links when you redirect your site from http to https (so all inbound links to http are being redirected to https version)?
I know when you redesign your on website, you loose about 15% internally due to the 301 redirects (see moz article: https://moz.com/blog/accidental-seo-tests-how-301-redirects-are-likely-impacting-your-brand), but I'm wondering if that also applies to value of inbound links when you redirect your http://www.sitename.com to https://www.sitename.com. I appreciate your help!
Technical SEO | | JBMediaGroup0 -
2 sites using 1 CMS... issues?
Hi, We are working with a client that has 2 sites in the same sector. They are currently on separate servers, with separate blogs, images galleries etc. Both sites rank combined for over 200 terms. IF we were to "combine" the sites on one CMS, with one IP, two separate front ends, one blog stream, one image gallery what do you think the SEO impact would be from this? We had an issue with another client whose sites were too close and we had to separate in order to get them both to rank. Further to this we want both sites to now have their own https certificate however this wouldn't be possible if combined. Interested to hear thoughts on this. Thanks
Technical SEO | | lauratagdigital0 -
How long before I can use a redirected domain without taking back link juice?
We recently moved our website to a new domain that better matched our brand. I want to use the old domain at some point for another aspect of our business. How long after we do the domain redirect will it be safe to use the old domain again--without affecting the seo of the new domain? Thanks! Harriet
Technical SEO | | zharriet0 -
Effects of significant cross linking between subdomains
A client has noticed in recent months that their traffic from organic search has been declining, little by little. They have a large ecommerce site with several different categories of product - each product type has its own subdomain. They have some big megamenus going on, and the end result is that if you look in their Webmaster Tools for one of their subdomains, under Links to your Site, it says they have nearly 22 million links from their own domain! Client is wondering if this is what is causing the decline in traffic and wondering whether to change the whole structure of their site. Interested to hear the thoughts of the community on this one!
Technical SEO | | helga730 -
E-commerce site multi language product urls
Hi, On my E-commerce site I use optimized Url's (product names) with my native language (Hebrew) I am going to translate some of the product pages to English with differnat descriptions, correct layout, etc... But I was wandering about the product Url's. Should I stay with the original product URL and add a language parameter to the url? Should I add a completely new URL using the English product name? Of course what I'm worrying the most of is duplicate content. Thanks, Asaf
Technical SEO | | AsafY0 -
Internal Links on eCommerce sites
I have been working on an eCommerce site; www.pretavoir.co.uk over the past year. Improvements in SERPs have been good with many top three positions. However, there are other important keywords of similar difficulty which refuse to behave in a similar way.... The site is PR4 and has a homepage PA 52. The homepage includes links to internal brand pages eg Prada, Gucci etc. Q Would it be worthwhile creating footer anchor text with eaxct text eg Prada sunglasses, Gucci Sunglasses?? Thanks
Technical SEO | | seanmccauley0 -
E-commerce Optimization
If you're optimizing an e-commerce site where you sell a certain brand of product, can you re-use the product descriptions from that brand's store? For example, if I'm selling Nike's, can I use the product descriptions and info from the Nike product pages? (This is not what I'm selling). Or should you write your own descriptions. I understand that original content is best, but in an online store situation, how do you write up a product description that's different from the original? It is what it is, right?
Technical SEO | | MichaelWeisbaum0 -
Is it a good idea to make 301 from a site which you know google has banned certain keywords for to a new site with similar content
Here is a short question re. 301. I read Dovers article on how to move an old domain to a new one. Say you have been a little inexperienced regarding linkbuilding and used some cheap service in the past and you have steadily seen that certain keywords have been depreciating in the SERP - however the PR is still 3 for the domain - now the qustion is should you rediect with a 301 in .htaccess to a new domain when you know that google does not like certain keywords with respect to the old site. Will the doom and gloom carry over to the new site?
Technical SEO | | Kofoed0