Partnerships web pages and optimization- dangers and solutions?

[SCLTeamShip]

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.

[edwardrj]

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.

[SCLTeamShip]

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

[kadesmith]

1. How many of these is "a lot"?  If it's 10 or so, I wouldn't be worried at all.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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.

[William.Lau]

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.