Is the Use of Outbound Links of Any Benefit?

August 16, 2010 by editor  
Filed under Web 2.0

An age old question I often hear asked is if linking out to other webpages will help or hurt ones own interior(a) Google rankings.

The short answer is that it all depends . First, the type of site that you are linking your page too will play a very important role in how search engines like google view this seo tactic . Sites that are considered spammy, have illegal content, or have been put on Googles “bad list” before will likely hurt your webpage . It isn’t necessarily because that other site probably won’t have any – or only a low – Page Rank, merely that it has minuscule real value to the end user.

Search engines liek Google and Bing themselves have told webmasters to create their content based on visitors’ wants and needs, not on what will impress the search engines . This basically means you must link to sites that help your visitors.  A spammy site will not while an on theme site related to the content on hand will. .

This doesn’t mean adding links for the sake of it, of course. The key is to use relevant outbound links in order to help your visitors. The reasons are twofold , to:-

* Give your visitors ways to View similar related information
* Include your opinions on existing related content

It should go without saying that making such links <rel=”nofollow”> is pointless, since you are then telling Google that you don’t trust that site, nor do you give it your approval. If that’s the case then why are you linking to it?  “Nofollows” are more appropriately used on blogs or forums where links are user-generated which so often lend themselves to spam comments.

How, you as a webmaster uses outbound links says a huge amount about you . You’ve researched your subject, a big positive. Visitors will want to return for more information on any future topics . It can also help you get seen by other websites like forex4free within the same ‘ niche ‘ so there can be a viral effect in the long run .

Don’t worry what Pagerank your outbound links have.  That has no effect on your ranking.  Also, don’t worry that you are losing visitors by referring them to other sites.  If the content you provide is valuable, they will likely return anyway.


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