How to use outbound links for Search Engine Optimization
| Posted by: Samantha Tang |
The significance of outbound links has often been debated. In fact, this area is not specifically addressed in Google’s Webmaster Guidelines, although they do specify the importance of incoming links from relevant sites.
Then, there is the debate on Page Rank Leak on Google Groups. Some webmasters wonder if having too many outbound links would have a negative effect on a site’s page rank. Apparently, there is an interesting Page Rank Leak theory that states that:“Page Rank bleed is the theory that Page A will loose some of its Page Rank when it links to Page B.”
Then, there has been recent chatter on the importance of outbound links. Problogger’s Do outbound links matter for SEO? advocates linking to relevant and high page rank sites, with the appropriate use of keywords as anchor text.
Also, the analogy used to describe how search engine spiders use outbound links in SEO for Google, seems to make logical sense. Finally, How Bad Outbounds Can Impact Websites, stresses the impact of linking to relevant sites on maintaining page rank.
Most of these ‘theories’ seem to have some truth in them. However, my personal experience with outbound links – The Effects of Outbound Links on Search Engine Optimization – was the proof I needed to confirm that outbound links DO MATTER in SEO.
The following are some standard guidelines when incorporating outbound links on your site:
1. Rank to relevant sites only
Search engine spiders use your outbound links to determine the relevance of site to a certain keyword. The industry, business or keyword of the sites you are linking to will be associated with your site. Thus, if your site is about pizzas, linking to other popular pizza sites such as Domino’s or Pizza Hut, would help in associating your site with pizzas.
2. Try to rank to high page rank sites
Google page ranks help to mark the importance, or popularity of a website. As high page rank sites have greater influence on search engines, linking to them (especially high relevance ones) provides your site with more credibility. To put this into perspective, having a testimony or job reference from a Vice President would be more credible than say, a testimony from a peer.
3. Don’t overdo it with outbound links
There has to be a good balance between outbound links and incoming links. Having too many outbound links from your site may make you suspicious in the eyes of the search engines. In item 4 of post - Matt Cutts on Nofollow, Links-Per-Page and the Value of Directories – Google has once stated that it is wise for webmasters to have a maximum of 100 links on their site.
Use relevant anchor text
Anchor text used in linking out should be as relevant as possible. The relevance of the anchor text has an effect on the effectiveness of keyword optimization on your site.
About Samantha Tang
Samantha Tang runs http://www.what-sells-online.com, a blog that explores the various products, opportunities and methods available to make money online. Samantha also shares her experience on areas of search engine optimization, traffic generation and affiliate marketing, essential aspects in turning any online business into a success.
January 22nd, 2008 at 6:44 pm
Samantha,
Thanks for the great article on outbound links. Other then the SEO value of outbound links we have found that linking to relevant content is a valuable tool for readers. It directs them to additional information and tools that can supplement an article or post. We haved link to less SERP popular articles or posts because they could be valuable to our readers. I agree SEO is important but there is a fine line between being high ranked and not providing a valuable post. Thanks again for the post.
-The Marketing Prowess Staff
January 22nd, 2008 at 11:36 pm
Hi Samantha, good writing,
I’d suggest to use some “no follow” tags as a way to show Google that you are concerned about link juice with quality.
Cheers
Lucio
January 25th, 2008 at 4:26 pm
Hi Marketing Prowness
Yes, I agree. Sites or articles that outbound links link to should be relevant to the reader as well. We shouldn’t be overloading our site with outbound links that are irrelevant. Our utlimate audience is still the reader, although we need to create a balance between this and SEO.
Hi Lucio
Yes. Perhaps I’ll discuss no-follow tags in a future post.
Cheers,
Samantha
http://www.what-sells-online.com
January 29th, 2008 at 6:48 pm
Great post and ideas! I’m going to share this with the rest of my team for ideas on outbound linking.
January 30th, 2008 at 4:07 pm
Nice tips but i think for the newbies only
January 31st, 2008 at 2:19 pm
Those 100 links, is that per page or per site? I know that the whole reciprocal link thing is outdated, but for sites that have those resource pages with mounds of links, are they being penalized for having 100 links on a link page or 100 links over their whole site?
Thanks for the insight.
February 2nd, 2008 at 7:48 am
hi Greg,
Google recommends that you place no more than 100 links on a page. It doesn’t mean you’ll get penalized but the value of the links and page certainly does devalue and for a visitor, it looks very spammy as well.
February 2nd, 2008 at 11:54 pm
This article should be edited to clarify that Matt Cutts recommended no more than 100 links on a given PAGE, and said nothing about the number of outbound links from a given SITE. In this case, the difference between a single page and a site is quite important.