Partnerships web pages and optimization- dangers and solutions?
-
My boss is in the process of building lot of new partnerships. The goal is to increase the number of mutual referrals. These are businesses that are not in the same industry, but have the same clients, so there is no competition.
He wants a separate Partners category, landing page and a subpage for each partner. On each partner page, he wants a link pointing back to the partner company, along with some information about that particular business.
In exchange, our partners would do the same- have a page dedicated to us with information and a link to our website.
By the way, this is not an affiliate program, just referral exchange program.I am worried about appearing like a link farm. Should I be?
From what I see, most partners of other companies are all listed on one page.My boss says others do this without any problems, but he is not an SEO person.
What are the dangers of doing it the way my boss wants?
What is the safest way to list business partners on our website while trying to accomplish what I have been asked (or as closely as possible)?No follow links, maybe? What about the metas and titles? NoIndex/NoFollow pages? (my boss wants these pages to be indexed).Your input is greatly appreciated.
-
It's listed right here in the Google Webmaster Guidelines:
"Building partner pages exclusively for the sake of cross-linking."
http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=66356
The guidelines also mentioned "excessive link exchanges" -- so what's deemed excessive? This is definitely a gray area.
I would nofollow the links just to be safe.
-
Hi,
Although I appreciate your thoughts, I feel that I am playing with fire if I had to add these links, since this program will expand to include more related industries.
I am responsible for the website's results and making sure it is safe, so it is my job to let my boss know about these things-good and bad. Being responsible for the website, it is not enough to just earn the paycheck and keep my mouth shut- this is not that kind of role.
Being opinionated and holding my boss from making a mistake is one of my duties, and so far, I have accomplished this. In the end, he has the final say, of course, and luckily my boss is intelligent and listens to my opinions, whether he likes them or not.
I am just trying to find the happy medium between making him happy and following the rules to the best of my abilities.I know all about the natural link-building and unique content, and I have built a lot of unique content for many years.
Thank you again
-
- How many of these is "a lot"? If it's 10 or so, I wouldn't be worried at all.
- Does your boss pay your paycheck? If yes, I'd do what he says if you aren't sure because it is his business, money, etc.
- The safest way to list business partners on your site is naturally. This means that if it makes sense to give each of them their own page, then do it. If it means to put them all on the same page do that.
- Don't worry about no follow links in this case, especially if you are in related industries. Linking to sites in the same industry is a good thing. I would go as far as to say link to more than just these companies so that it doesn't look like you only link to people who link to you if you are worried about looking like a link farm or circle.
- On each of their pages I would make a strong effort to create unique content. Not just copy and paste from their websites. This way you are adding value to the web.
-
Yes it would be a bad idea.
If you must, just nofollow the links. The dangers are getting ALL the sites penalized and that just isn't cool to have it happen.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
SEO value of home page links
I was looking at the website peak7.org and there are links on the homepage that rotate at the bottom. Do such links have SEO value even though they are not static text links? Are they still counted as links by Google if they are in that rotating carousel?
Link Building | | RandyHT1 -
1 Domain - 2 Links Pointing to 2 Different Pages
Hi Guys, I wonder if you can give me any pointers: We have an exact match domain name that is ranking #5 for our main keyword and is getting some good traffic through the site. We have just created a landing page for another keyword with fresh content that will be updated every week. The question is, I've been building links to my domain name and I'm just wondering if we built another link from 1 of the sites we already have a link on and point it to this new landing page would this help it rank better or not? Hope the above makes sense. Thanks, Scott
Link Building | | ScottBaxterWW0 -
I have a Question about open site explorer.Specifically the top pages tab
When i hover the little question mark icon it says "target the best pages to maximize link building.See top pages on the subdomain according to Page authority." Could someone explain this to me.And how do i target the best pages.I'm beginning my second trial week of SEO moz so please excuse me if I sound like a beginner! Thanks in advance PCtechGuy2012
Link Building | | PCTechGuy20120 -
Page Rank Update
I was hit by Google’s latest Page Rank update. I know “don’t be obsessed with Page Rank”, but it concerns me. I thought that I was developing a very good link profile and actually was hopeful that it would go to a PR-5 and it dropped to a PR-3. www.simply-bags.com I have another site www.keepsakes-etc.com and have done very little link building and it also dropped to a PR-3. Can anyone give me some honest feedback about my concern?
Link Building | | b4tv0 -
Unblock Shopping Cart Page
Is it weird to remove the View Cart page from being blocked in robots.txt if it has links pointing to it?
Link Building | | poolguy0 -
Linkbuilding from sites with lower Domain Authority and Page Rank than mine?
I have decided to approach all my suppliers and ask them for a link. If their site has a lower PR/DA than mine (PR4, DA43) is is it still worth asking them from a link, given the time that needs to be invested in this type of link building?
Link Building | | Tman30 -
Nofollow link from page rank 7?
What do you think about a nofollow link from page rank 7? will I see any results? how much is it worth?
Link Building | | DiamondJewelryEmpire0 -
Local Search Citation Building - 2 links on 1 page?
I have the opportunity to display information about a business on a handfull of high PR web pages (with relevant content, not directory listings). I'd like to use these listings to build local search citations and homepage authority/rank for chosen anchortext. The format allows name, address, phone number, email & url plus a description of the business (short paragraph that can contain a link) - see below. Should I link from the homepage url and body anchor text? Will search engines ignore the anchor text used in the 2nd link? Example Limited, 123 Example Road, London N12 3AA United Kingdom Tel: 020 712 3456 Email: ** hello@example.com** **Web: www.example.com ** A unique service offering special widgets to customers in the London area
Link Building | | Tman30