Anything to bear in mind when setting up a related 'family' of sites with linking between them?
-
We've spun out content from a single finance related news/analysis site (running for about 2 years) into several topic-specific sites on individual topics (markets, investment etc etc). They're all on the same server, use the same CMS (using a multisite setup), and share largely the same codebase, though obviously with customisations for the site names, and we've made sure each has a distinct identity.
At the bottom of each page, we're linking to 'latest posts on the network', aggregating the 5 most recent posts from all the sites and displaying them in the footer. We've obviously made sure the actual content is completely unique on each site though.
Just wondering if anyone has any tips about ensuring we don't dilute our SEO too much. and how to maximise our effectiveness?
-
Thanks Ryan - that's great to know. We'll definitely bear both of those in mind!
-
There are only two concerns I would express from a search engine perspective:
1. Be sure not to perform any black techniques, intentionally or unintentionally, on any of the sites. Your sites are related and a penalty may affect multiple sites.
2. Be aware of any content which may be duplicated between your sites.
-
Thanks guys - point taken on the fact that the links won't be worth a great deal - the actual intention with spinning out the sites was to serve quite distinct users, rather than to try anything black-hat, and obviously we'd expect the site value to decrease by at least the amount of any content moved off the site. The topics are pretty distinct, so the feeling is that over time, they'll each be able to build up value in those distinct areas.
I guess the real question (and I could have phrased this better!) was whether there's anything else we should be particularly careful to avoid? We're fine with engines realising that all the content is from the same source, and it's pretty well advertised all over the sites, but the last thing we want to do is take a big SEO hit beyond that initial one of just shifting a couple of posts around to have a few things on the other sites after launch?
-
We've spun out content from a single finance related news/analysis site (running for about 2 years) into several topic-specific sites on individual topics. Anything to bear in mind when setting up a related 'family' of sites with linking between them?
Yes... the links between these sites will be nearly worthless.
-
Since your sites are on the server they will be recognized as a network of sites and the links will be devalued.
From a search engine's perspective, the value behind a link is when it represents an independent endorsement of your website. It is basically a "vote" for your site. When you link to your own site, the vote should not count.
Search engines will examine your site's content, code, IP address and other factors in an effort to determine if your site's links are independent in nature, or part of a network of sites as in your case. There is not a white hat means to create a network of sites on related financial topics as in your case. From a search engine's perspective, the desire is for you to make a single site and provide all your content at that location. They reward this action with increasing DA for your site. The idea of creating many micro sites is not ideal for SEs nor users, and the effect is to litter the internet with many small sites.
The SEO methods used on the blackhat side for micro sites is to scatter the sites across different IPs, change the coding and other efforts designed to manipulate search engines view of these sites. Some results are effective, others are not. Most people who are successful at performing this type of manipulation are only getting away with things for a period of time until they are caught. It's a shell game.
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
-
Setting up a Affiliate Linking Program
Hello all, I work for a travel booking agency that specialises in coach and minibus hire. I am currently thinking about creating a Affiliate Linking Program to create some links for the business. So this could be a suppliers page (similar to a directory page) with details of related companies to ours. We can link to there site and they can link to ours - its win-win situation for both parties. Is there a difference between a Affiliate Program for links and a business directory on your site? Has anyone done something similar to this before? What are peoples thoughts? Thanks for your help in advance - Aqib
Link Building | | SMCCoachHire0 -
How to get 'Links to you site' via the google search console API?
hey! Any idea how I can download backlinks via the sear console API? This page from Google has a few commands but not the back links one - https://developers.google.com/apis-explorer/#p/webmasters/v3/ Has anyone collected backlinks data in the past? Apprrciate your help! Thanks Arjun
Link Building | | BaselineTry0 -
How important are 'anchor' text links now
We have started building some good links but I'm just wandering how important anchor based text ones are now.
Link Building | | nick-name123
I'm not talking about spamming/going too heavy but a few here and there. What's your recent experience?0 -
Linking Between Sites
Hi everyone, Hope you are all doing well. If a company owns several different websites that are supposed to be different brands but are part of the same niche/sector is it OK to link between them? Or would this be seen as violation? Thanks
Link Building | | National-Homebuyers0 -
Should I ask sites that link to me to update links that redirect?
I have found some links to my site that go through a single 301 redirect to get to my site. Should I contact these websites to ask them to update the link, or is that not worth the time?
Link Building | | RCF0 -
I found a link to my customer's site with an over-optimized
I found a link to my customer's site with an over-optimized anchor text using the OpenSite Explorer tool, but when I opened the link, my customer's link is nowhere to be found. Here is the link Opensiteexplorer gave me: http://www.derbymadness.com/my-profile/demolition-derby-groups/viewgroup/12-web And here is my customer's link: 1896omalleyhouse.com The link is not on the cached version of the page either. Can anyone tell me how this might happen? Thanks!
Link Building | | Acorn-IS0 -
Links for edu and gov sites
So it is general knowledge that links from .edu and .gov sites are valued higher by Google. So, I hired some guys on freelance sites to help me buildlinks and get some love from SERPS. But one thing I notice quite often is that some of these links are actually like *.edu.tw (with a international TLD after .edu) What is your thoughts on links like that, do they have ANY edu value?
Link Building | | limens1 -
Anything to be done about lack of link in a WSJ story?
We had this great, great thing happen which is that the Wall St. Journal quoted me in a story about contract workers. The story (here, and my blog about it here) was awesome, but it had absolutely no link. It got the name of my company right, but the only link comes in a comment that I wrote, and that is on a separate comment page that has not shown up in my Open Site Explorer, or any other tool that I can see for inbound links. Is there anyway to help Google to understand that the Blogmutt that the WSJ wrote about is the same as the Blogmutt.com on the internet? I don't imagine there is, but I'd be interested if anyone has any ideas. Thanks in advance, (First time posting here) -Scott
Link Building | | scodtt0