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Thanks, Robert.  My question is more of a technical inquiry rather than a theoretical link-building question.

If two sites (follow)link to each other, clearly that does not offer any link juice.  But if one site agrees to host a link as a no-follow strictly for visibility/leads/etc while the other partner hosts a follow link, would that provide an added benefit to the site with the follow link from an SEO perspective or do they still void each other out in the eyes of the algorithm?

Hi all,

Wondering how Google would interpret the exchange of a no-follow link for a follow link between partner websites.  I have a potential referral relationship with a business in my niche and we are hoping to cross-market.

The goal would be for my link on his page to be a follow link, while the link to his business on my page would be a no-follow.  Would my site get the benefit of a natural link in that scenario or would the two essentially 'cancel each other out' regardless of the follow/no-follow nature of the link?

Thanks in advance for any help!

-Rich