Need advice to fix a strange link-building strategy

[dsdd]

Basically you have a server. So, build a couple of sites and the just link back to one?!!

I will just ask that what were you thinking while doing that?

That's what I was thinking. I don't know who put this "plan" in place, or when it was done, but it's up to me to try fix it for my client.

The directory sites are mostly all the same, with a few of them tailored to focus on particular product sub-categories. They don't have any unique content as everything originates from the main site and they are not very well optimized either. Visually they look quite dated, so I'm assuming that they were built a long time ago when it was possibly easier to manipulate search results with link schemes such as these.

I am going to recommend that the directory sites are taken down and follow a more textbook approach to link-building and other SEO improvements for the main site. I feel that moving the directory sites to their own IP addresses isn't really going to solve anything as it still feels like a "not completely honest" approach to the task. If the client refuses I might drop the job.

Thanks for everyone's input.