Should You Build Multiple Sites And Cross-Promote Them?
It may seem intuitive. You need relevant inbound links. They need to be relevant. They should come from authoritative sites within your niche. Why not just build a bunch of sites within your niche with different domain names and link them together?
There are some dangers in doing this. First, if all of your sites are hosted through the same web host then it is likely that they will exist on the same web server. That’s a big red flag where the search engines are concerned. Several sites linking to each other and that exist on the same server are too closely related to be of any good to each other. They are likely owned by the same person or group of people so it’s like a mini-network of sites and Google has pretty much killed networks.
Even if you solved the server class problem, there are issues. Suppose you host all of your domains at different hosting companies. That way they are all on different servers and different IP blocks. Good for you. If they are all linking to each other with no links out to other relevant sites and no, or few, inbound links from other relevant sites, it still looks like the link pattern of a network and it will be likely be treated that way by the search engines.
Furthermore, if your sites are all registered under the same name then your Whois data could be giving you away.
While it’s possible to fool the search engines today, you likely won’t get away with any long term strategy of link networking. It is best to build quality content and develop social proof. The search engines will treat you better.
4 Responses to “Should You Build Multiple Sites And Cross-Promote Them?”
The Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Journal is Written by SEO Expert:
Nick Stamoulis
Tel - 781-999-1222
nick@brickmarketing.com
Brick Marketing - SEO Company
Nick, This looks more like deceptive marketing.
If you have a web site then you should either pay or put information on the site that has merit to SEO for people to find worth in your product and site.
Why would you want to create pseudo sites that have no merit except to promote the original site ?
I am not a lawyer, however this approach may have some legal ramifications and I did stay at a holiday inn express last night.
@Sal Tuzzo – You are correct it could be deceptive…the key is excellent relevant and user focused content that provides value…Thanks for stopping by and the comment!
There’s always one. Building multiple sites is not deceptive marketing. Each is owned by a company that tells people in the about us page it’s owned by the same company.
That’s like saying a company like geico who uses the gecko in ads should not also run the other ads that say “that’s the money you could be saving with geico”.
Sal, by your logic, they would be doing deceptive advertising. They had one ad campaign out there, running a second one to appeal to a different audience is deceptive.
Websites are ads if you sell something. Any ad firm will tell you repitition is the key to advertising.
And on the legality, you’re right, you are not a lawyer.
@Chris McElroy – Thanks for your comment Chris! Nice analogy to Geico