Link Farm?

[earle_judd]

I am developing parts sites from several different Manufacturers.
I want to link all of these together so if a customer has a different make like a Subaru and a Nissan he can visit one site and link to
another dealer with the same type of content for a different make.

My Internet Guru said that by having a link to 1stautoparts.com
that lays out the federated dealer group providing these services
and linking them back to each of the auto parts sites (ie.. 1stsubaruparts.com , 1stfordparts.com, etc.) this constitues a link farm and I could be banned from search engines and directories.
Is this true?
If so how would you handle this issue.

Thanks again for your help in advance.

Earle



[Moved from Google forum to here. Please read this (http://www.ihelpyouservices.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=7575) for further clarification. - Jill]

[scottiecl]

Hi Earle! :hi:

Welcome to the forum.

Linking the sites together isn't a necessarily link farm in itself unless it is a "closed loop", in other words there are no other sites linking to your sites except each other.

I would recommend having each site link back to a directory page on the group dealer site. From a user perspective, it doesn't make much sense to think that someone looking for a Ford part just *might* need a Subaru part as well as a Chrysler part... you get the idea. I might actually need a Mazda part, but I don't want to see links to 15 other car makers on every page of every site. If I do need something else, I don't mind returning to the directory and selecting that maker from the list.

You will probably only get the "parent" site listed in the directories, just to let you know.