Outgoing Links and SEO
If you’ve read my article on SEO, you know that inbound links are one of your greatest allies for boosting your small business website’s search engine results. The power of inbound links to increase search engine rankings makes many website owners worry that including outgoing links on their website will have the opposite effect. In fact, you’ve probably heard or read that outgoing links can hurt your Google PageRank. Actually, outbound links on your webpage can be a great SEO tool and can work with other SEO tips to improve your website’s search engine ranking.
Advantages of Outgoing Links
- Linking to high-quality websites places your site in a “good neighborhood” by associating your site with quality. You can think of it just like your real-life neighborhood–if the people living next door renovate their house, your house will go up in value as well. Similarly, if you link to an excellent website, your site’s perceived value will increase.
- By taking the time to choose quality links that add value to your website’s content, you show your visitors that you know how to recognize good information and want to be their go-to resource.
- Linking to other websites is a natural way to increase your incoming links, by drawing attention to your website and encouraging reciprocation. If your website has useful content, sites you link to will be inclined to return the favor.
- Anchor text for outgoing links can be a great place to include your website’s SEO keywords in your content. If it doesn’t make sense to use your keywords in the anchor text, it may be a sign that the outbound link isn’t relevant enough, and you may want to rethink including it.
Watch out for:
- Becoming part of a virtual “bad neighborhood” by linking to spammy or low-quality websites. Search engines and visitors will judge your website by the company it keeps, so only link to high-quality, relevant websites.
- Including dozens of links to irrelevant sites. Always think about your visitors and only include links that you think they will truly find useful or interesting.
- Sending your visitors to websites offering the same services or products. Outgoing links direct your website’s visitors away from your site, so you want to be sure that you’re not sending them to a competitor. Instead, send them to sites that provide something relevant but slightly outside the scope of your own website. For example, if your website sells baby clothes, you may link to a website that’s all about preparing for a new baby–but which doesn’t actually sell baby items. Your visitors will appreciate the useful information and they will return to your site to make their purchases.
Do outgoing links drain your PageRank?
No one knows exactly how Google calculates PageRank, but the general consensus is that including relevant, high-quality outgoing links will do more to help your PageRank than harm it. The only danger comes from linking to websites which have been penalized by Google, are of low quality, or have no relevance to your website.
Outgoing links can be an excellent SEO tool, and you shouldn’t be afraid to include well-chosen links when you think they will add value to your website’s content.
Tags: Anchor text, Backlink, Hyperlink, PageRank, Search Engine Optimization
SEO, Website Content | Yiana Palacios | 
June 22, 2010 7:09 am | 
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