Building a Marketing Blog Network -- "Would I be Stupid to..."

[Webcam Amy]

Hello Warriors. I'm building a new network of blogs that I will use to market my money sites. And I'm unclear on a few things. Hopefully some resident experts can help me clear this up...

Based on the idea that I'm building 100 hand-written blogs...

[1] Would I be stupid to link all my blogs together through a single Google Analytics & Webmaster Tools account? I really like Analytics and Webmaster Tools, but I could imagine scenarios in which they might quietly penalize an entire network of sites if they are all owned/managed by the same person. -- Even if they are all high-quality sites.

[2] Would I be stupid to register all my domains through the same registrar account that I used to register my money sites?

[3] Would I be stupid to put all my blog sites together on the same server? I've seen people say you need every site on a different host/IP. But that could get really expensive and cumbersome to manage.

Thank you in advance for any enlightenment you can share. I know a few things about SEO, but I feel like it's just enough to be dangerous.

[Chasing Pace]

Yes, yes, and yes.

[dburk]

Hi Amy,

No, no, and no not for that reason.

It doesn't matter if you put your content on on the same servers, same IP, even the same domain. None of those are ranking factors. People that are doing illegal or black hat methods may need to hide their affiliation to prevent their entire network of malicious websites from getting de-indexed all at once. However if you are following Google's Webmaster guidelines then their is no need to be concerned about that.

If you do build a network of blogs, it might be advisable to spread them out over several hosts to avoid a single point of failure, but that's got nothing to do with SEO, just a way to add robustness to your network.

I'm sure that there will be other opinions on this matter, but mine is time tested and true for me as well as many other webmasters. Many SEO novices are into Cargo Cult Science or what I like to call SEO mysticism. I prefer the tried and true scientific testing methods. So follow whichever advise you feel the most comfortable with, a little mysticism may not hurt your SEO, just your wallet.

[gearmonkey]

Originally Posted by Webcam Amy

Hello Warriors. I'm building a new network of blogs that I will use to market my money sites. And I'm unclear on a few things. Hopefully some resident experts can help me clear this up...

Based on the idea that I'm building 100 hand-written blogs...

[1] Would I be stupid to link all my blogs together through a single Google Analytics & Webmaster Tools account? I really like Analytics and Webmaster Tools, but I could imagine scenarios in which they might quietly penalize an entire network of sites if they are all owned/managed by the same person. -- Even if they are all high-quality sites.

Do not use anything Google on any of the blogs in your private network.

[2] Would I be stupid to register all my domains through the same registrar account that I used to register my money sites?

Mix it up. You want to keep everything private. I also suggest making your register private (might cost a few bucks extra, but do it!)

[3] Would I be stupid to put all my blog sites together on the same server? I've seen people say you need every site on a different host/IP. But that could get really expensive and cumbersome to manage.

Again, mix it up. Use different servers, different IPs. You are building a private blog network that leaves no footprint.

Thank you in advance for any enlightenment you can share. I know a few things about SEO, but I feel like it's just enough to be dangerous.

See bold. Good luck!

[dburk]

Originally Posted by gearmonkey

See bold. Good luck!

I do the opposite of all that and get great results. Just saying...

I try to leave as many footprints as possible since that is how author authority is built.

[gearmonkey]

Originally Posted by dburk

I do the opposite of all that and get great results. Just saying...

I try to leave as many footprints as possible since that is how author authority is built.

I thought it was against Google's TOS to try and game Google's system. A blog network that's created to build links to your money site is a form of 'gaming the system', even if the content and intent is genuine. The fact that it's a system to game Google, from what I understand, is still against their TOS.

So in your eyes you might think you are doing everything okay, but in Google's eyes (when they find your footprint) might have a totally different feeling about it and devalue/sandbox your entire netowork. Why chance it?

[Laubster]

GearMonkey is right. If you're doing everything white hat you're prob. fine, but building a blog network to boost your money sites by definition is not white hat. All depends how you use the blog and how blatant you are about promoting your money sites.

[Bofu2U]

Originally Posted by gearmonkey

I thought it was against Google's TOS to try and game Google's system. A blog network that's created to build links to your money site is a form of 'gaming the system', even if the content and intent is genuine. The fact that it's a system to game Google, from what I understand, is still against their TOS.

So in your eyes you might think you are doing everything okay, but in Google's eyes (when they find your footprint) might have a totally different feeling about it and devalue/sandbox your entire netowork. Why chance it?

Actually last time I checked it's if you use it to "manipulate pagerank" - I don't want PageRank, I want rankings.

[dburk]

Originally Posted by gearmonkey

I thought it was against Google's TOS to try and game Google's system. A blog network that's created to build links to your money site is a form of 'gaming the system', even if the content and intent is genuine. The fact that it's a system to game Google, from what I understand, is still against their TOS.

So in your eyes you might think you are doing everything okay, but in Google's eyes (when they find your footprint) might have a totally different feeling about it and devalue/sandbox your entire netowork. Why chance it?

Hi gearmonkey,

I guess it depends on how you do it. The way I do it is precisely the way Google recommends doing it. Create unique content that adds value and link it in a way that is useful to users.

If you are building web spam then I don't think it matters how many domains nor how many IPs you try to hide that spam behind, Google is eventually going to find it and devalue it. Meanwhile I'm sitting on perennial #1 positions with quality content with every signal of relevance and every footprint that I can muster to tell users and Google how to find my content.

Think about it, you need to get noticed by Google to rank well, how are you going to achieve that if you are trying to not get noticed by Google?

[gearmonkey]

Originally Posted by dburk

Hi gearmonkey,

I guess it depends on how you do it. The way I do it is precisely the way Google recommends doing it. Create unique content that adds value and link it in a way that is useful to users.

If you are building web spam then I don't think it matters how many domains nor how many IPs you try to hide that spam behind, Google is eventually going to find it and devalue it. Meanwhile I'm sitting on perennial #1 positions with quality content with every signal of relevance and every footprint that I can muster to tell users and Google how to find my content.

Think about it, you need to get noticed by Google to rank well, how are you going to achieve that if you are trying to not get noticed by Google?

Why not just stick to ezinearticles.com then? Google devalued their links because they didn't like their system. I believe they called it a "link farm"... hence Google farmer update last year.

Who's to say they won't consider a blog network a "link farm"?

[Webcam Amy]

Thank you for the constructive discussion, guys! I think I'm going to lean towards DBurk's logic on this.

It makes sense that Google would devalue/delist you if you are filling the web with spam blogs. But if you're creating highly relevant and desirable content, then it wouldn't make any sense for them to penalize you.

In other words, if one well-built blog full of good, hand-written content could earn a top 5 listing, then why would Google penalize you for building 25 well-built (and completely unique) blogs? I think logic would argue that they (Google) would do as DBurk said... recognize that this author continues to put out good, desirable content.

On the flip-side, anyone doing blackhat stuff would want to remain in the shadows -- and keep their shady techniques undercover too. Which means tons of IPs and hidden identities, etc. And all of that means they aren't building any reputation at all.

I don't know if author reputation points are considered in the SERPs at all. But perhaps they should be. Perhaps someday they will be.

So since I'm going to be creating high quality blogs, I'm not going to worry too much about using Analytics and Webmaster Tools. Hopefully that decision won't come back to bite me in the butt!