Reciprocal linking across holding

[RBenedict]

Hi there,

I was wondering if the following setup might be harmful for SEO of is frowned upon by Google:

I manage a couple of websites that belong to a specific company within a holding company. What is allowed regarding reciprocal linking? The current setup is like this:

• Site A: one-page general website about the holding, links to sites B, C, D on the homepage (follow link)
• Site B: website for a specific company branch, links to SITE A in the footer of each page (follow link)
• Site  website for a specific company branch, links to SITE A in the footer of each page (follow link)
• Site  website for a specific company branch, links to SITE A in the footer of each page (follow link)

Sites B,C,D don't link to each other, which is a good thing I guess, but should I change the links to nofollow, or is this not so harmful?

[irvingw]

use it for cross navigational purposes only (user experience) don't use it for SEO or you'll get penalized if you're passing page juice. Nofollow all of them by default if you need to interlink, better you don''t interlink them.

[RobertFisher]

RBenedict,

What you are describing is not reciprocal linking. You are a holding company with a legitimate purpose in your linking as well. Here is the GWMT page on Linking Schemes. The language is quite clear on what a "scheme" is:

Any links intended to manipulate a site's ranking in Google search results may be considered part of a link scheme. This includes any behavior that manipulates links to your site, or outgoing links from your site. Manipulating these links may affect the quality of our search results, and as such is a violation of Google’sWebmaster Guidelines.

I would not nofollow and they are not harmful.

Best