I have a Point2 website, domain name http://www.langstoneteam.com I want to develope an area of business, so was thinking of purchasing two more domain names to "point" at the current site.

Is that the way to go?

or do I use the 2 more Point2 free websites each with their own domain names and link all three of these sites to together.

If I use two additional websites, how much would it matter if the content was fairly static.

Your informed opinions please.

Many Thanks

If you point the new domains at the existing site you will need to use 301 redirects to protect the positions of the existing site. The new domains would not show up for searches - only the existing domain would. So, if your intent was to use the new domains in conventional advertising this would work. If your intent was to generate new traffic from the internet this would not work.

If you use two additional websites you may be able to generate new leads from the internet if you optimize the content and develop links pointing to the new sites. You need to be careful with the interlinking idea though - in my experience, if the sites that are interlinked have substantially similar content and target keywords overlap - only one of the sites will show up for most searches - not both. Often it is not the one that you would prefer.

I've seen a network of 30 sites crosslinking using sidebar links, basically link bombing the main site. Interestingly enough, the site is not only ranking on page one for many of its target keywords, its also managing to show 2-3 domains on the front page instead of just one.

Obviously there's a limit and you want to avoid topical overlap to the point where duplicate content becomes an issue. But the current SERP is extremely forgiving to crosslinking between sites, even when 90% of the sites are sitting on the same IP.

The advantage to having multiple domains is that when you own only one domain, you can only get one link from BOTW, for example. With 10 domains, you can gain 10+ links from one directory. Of course this tactic isn't for people with shallow wallets, but it's a viable option when you are going for deeper index penetration.

That's pretty surprising to hear. I was actually about to comment on the idea that if you plan to do this kind of linking a lot that you should have them on different IPs, but just hearing about this was kind of surprising.

In my experience I don't think search engines have ever taken the IPs into account when looking at cross linking. On the occasions when they do penalize for crosslinking it does not matter whether the sites are on the same IP or not.

There has been lots of speculation the sites linked together using the same IP is bad - but it has never been proven.

"That's pretty surprising to hear. I was actually about to comment on the idea that if you plan to do this kind of linking a lot that you should have them on different IPs, but just hearing about this was kind of surprising."

I've done link audits for several sites that are ranking almost solely on cross links. In one case, the network consists of about 30 sites, most of them on the same IP and unprotected whois. This real estate webmaster not only ranks on the front page for all of his target keywords, but he also has 2-3 domains dominating page one for each target term.

I think what you will see is that many sites remain on top with reciprocal linking, hidden text, paid links and spammy keywords. They stay there until someone (usually a competitor) files a spam report, then poof they're gone. So just because someone gets away with it doesn't prove that it's okay with google.

I agree. The penalties for cross linking and the other issues you mention are manually applied. Google really can't filter such sites out as much as they would like us to believe that they can.