My question has been answered

[shopwood]

Thank you for your response

[Andy.Drinkwater]

We are wondering if google can see this as a black hat tactic and therefore penalize our website

Absolutely - steer well clear of this practice and find other ways in. If Google get wind of it, you will have some tidying up to do.

-Andy

[PatrickDelehanty]

Hi there

Yes - as Andy said, avoid this practice. I would also make sure that you read up on Google's Link schemes resource in Google's Quality Guidelines. It has everything you need to know about what Google thinks about these sorts of things.

I recommend you also read Moz's Beginner's Guide to Link Building as well for more tips.

Hope this helps! Good luck!