Is Cross-Linking a Bad Strategy According to Google?

Aug 3, 2007 - 9:53 am 10 by

Yesterday, the Google Webmaster Blog came out with a post that said that cross-linking is not encouraged between many sites.

Before you begin cross-linking sites, consider the user's perspective and whether the crosslinks provide value. If the sites are related in business -- e.g., an auto manual site linking to an auto parts retail site, then it could make sense -- the links are organic and useful. Cross-linking between dozens or hundreds of sites, however, probably doesn't provide value, and I would not recommend it.

But WebmasterWorld members are dissatisfied with this. Blog networks, for example, utilize this practice and get instant rankings. So why stop?

Quadrille puts it quite nicely. There's still no value to the user with this strategy.

As you say, every new blog instantly crosslinks with many others, regardless of race, color, creed, quality or relevance. So, if we're honest, the value of each link to a visitor is close to zero - it's a lottery, frankly, rather than a recommendation.

If the site is not relevant, Miamacs says, there is little weight placed on the link because Google recognizes themes of websites.

A site not relevant to the anchor text it links out with, doesn't pass much power.

This really isn't anything new. Back in 2005, Google took the same approach. If there's no value added, Google doesn't rank those links, so why bother cross-linking?

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

 

Popular Categories

The Pulse of the search community

Search Video Recaps

 
Video Details More Videos Subscribe to Videos

Most Recent Articles

Google News

Google Won't Be Broken Up In Monopoly Case But Required To Share Search Data

Sep 2, 2025 - 5:50 pm
Search Forum Recap

Daily Search Forum Recap: September 2, 2025

Sep 2, 2025 - 10:00 am
Google Search Engine Optimization

September 2025 Google Webmaster Report

Sep 2, 2025 - 7:51 am
Google Ads

New Google Ads Checkboxes To Filter Campaigns

Sep 2, 2025 - 7:41 am
Google Ads

Google Ads AI Max Not Designed To Go More Aggressively After SPN Inventory

Sep 2, 2025 - 7:31 am
Google Ads

Google Ads Search Google Maps For Location Assets

Sep 2, 2025 - 7:21 am
 
Previous Story: "Operation Camouflage" Allows You to Hide From Competitors, But Can't You Just Place Your Ads Lower?