Should I add links to external informational sites?
-
.
-
2011 eanking factors survey finds acorrelation: those sites that contain outbound links are tending to rank better: http://www.seomoz.org/article/search-ranking-factors#metrics-5. It further more states somewhere (maybe in the video, I could not find) that linkig to Microsoft may bring better results, while linking to some other big company (exact company name is there you can look for it) triggered a fallback in rankings.
So linking to quality content by itself may should not cause a fallback.
-
In fact, NOT linking out and hoarding your PR/link juice could actually hurt you instead.
I don't have any proof that this is true but this is what I believe.... I believe that if you do lose linkjuice by linking out you receive instead an optimization bonus for linking out that is proportional to the value that would be delivered by a link from the target site back to yours. This is why I regularly link out to sites that are much better than mine.
-
Sorry, I noticed later that you have above the fold buy noe button as well.
-
Yes. So you adapt the content and you are able to place those buy now buttons that you have on your home page for example. if user goes off your page than he may be just wandering around, reading the content, than starting another search for surety bonds. Don't misunderstand me, I don't say that exactly this will happen for sure, but you give a chance for it to happen.
In our short term memory we can deal with 5-6 infos at a time. Your page is one. the content of the new page is the second. The environment the user sits in adds the third and maybe the forth. Changing channel on the webradio while reading: fifth. So I am trying to make you see that if short term memory is overload than you may be getting off the original path you came from. This is human nature and psychology: you can't hold everything i mind. You give user the CHANCE to go away.
I would not give a chance by publishing the same content on my site and placing the buy now conversion buttons so that you offer users the next step to take to become a customer.
Back to your main page: I would place that Buy now button a bit higher. I have once read a survey that states that around 80% of clicks on a website happen above the fold. I could not fond that for you but here is a comparison for you between above the fold and below the fold advertisements: http://emediavitals.com/content/improving-ad-performance-above-fold-repetition-brings-more-clicks. Above the fold is absolute winner.
-
"Links to external sites would cause me to lose out on link juice and would hurt me in google's eyes."
That may be the case back in 2001 but not so much anymore. In fact, NOT linking out and hoarding your PR/link juice could actually hurt you instead.
-
Thanks for your input. You are of the same mindset as me. I just want to make sure i'm not nuts for thinking this. Someone in my office said that placing links to external sites would cause me to lose out on link juice and would hurt me in google's eyes.
-
I created the links so that they always open in a new window. That was my attempt at keeping the user from forgetting where they came from. I'm not fully understanding your comment on conversion points and adapting the content to my site. Are you suggesting I have all content on my page vs. sending them away from the site?
-
Maybe I would adapt the content to my site so that the user is still able to read it, but you are able to add conversion points that lead the users back to your conversion channel. If user leaves your site can find another intresting link on government site than click through than not knowing where he came from. As far as the content is on your page you can control where the user is able to click from a specific page.
-
Well, you said it "Either way, in my mind, it's useful to the user and that trumps everything"
Optimize for the end-user, and the rest will fall into place. Don't be scared to link out if it's useful information for your user.
These days, nobody wants to link out to anybody. It's ridiculous. The internet is supposed to be a complete world of information, but every site on the net wants to keep everything to themselves.
I've come across articles in the past about how Bing takes this into consideration. They share the same ideology as you in that your website should be a 'one-stop shop' for the user.
And there's sure nothing wrong with linking to any government agencies as their content is usually 100% legit and accurate. Nothing to worry about there.
Go for it.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Informational query
Hello, In an informational query can the answer people are looking for have multiple intent or will it always have 1 intent ? For example New York, the intent is probably where ? On a longer query such as "Provence bike tour" what is the intent ? Where, what, Why, How to, when ? Thank you,
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | seoanalytics0 -
Link Types For Link Building
Hi i have a SEO agency we work with who are building quality guest post links for us, however they are also building forum, profile, blog comments
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | spyaccounts14
and directory based links. 60% of their links they are building are high quality, relevant guest posts while the other 40% are the other link types. The 40% seem to be relevant directories, forums, blog comments, etc. They said they build other link types because it diversifies the link building and profile rather then just building high quality guest posts. As just building one link type can leave a footprint. What are your thoughts on this? Cheers.0 -
Recovering from spam links on MY site
Hey guys, Having a weird situation and wondering if anybody can help. I run a sizable WordPress site with a number of content writers. One of the writer's accounts was hacked and was used to post several dozens of complete spam posts with spun content and links to all sorts of shady sites. Recently the site has begun losing rankings on all sorts of pages. There's no manual penalty or anything, but I'm concerned that we're being penalized for having had these links on the site. Of course, as soon as we found the content, we immediately removed it, reset passwords, etc. But a decent number of the pages were indexed. Does anybody have any experience with this or ideas of what to do about it? Is there somewhere we can talk to Google about it or some way to show that we are not part of bad neighborhoods? Thanks so much for any thoughts, Yon
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | yon230 -
Our Web Site Is candere.com. Its PA and back link status are different for https://www.candere.com, http://www.candere.com, https://candere.com, and http://candere.com. Recently, we have completely move from http to https.
How can we fix it, so that we may mot lose ranking and authority.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Dhananjayukumar0 -
Unpaid Followed Links & Canonical Links from Syndicated Content
I have a user of our syndicated content linking to our detailed source content. The content is being used across a set of related sites and driving good quality traffic. The issue is how they link and what it looks like. We have tens of thousands of new links showing up from more than a dozen domains, hundreds of sub-domains, but all coming from the same IP. The growth rate is exponential. The implementation was supposed to have canonical tags so Google could properly interpret the owner and not have duplicate syndicated content potentially outranking the source. The canonical are links are missing and the links to us are followed. While the links are not paid for, it looks bad to me. I have asked the vendor to no-follow the links and implement the agreed upon canonical tag. We have no warnings from Google, but I want to head that off and do the right thing. Is this the right approach? What would do and what would you you do while waiting on the site owner to make the fixes to reduce the possibility of penguin/google concerns? Blair
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | BlairKuhnen0 -
Site revamp for neglected site - modifying site structure, URLs and content - is there an optimal approach?
A site I'm involved with, www.organicguide.com, was at one stage (long ago) performing reasonably well in the search engines. It was ranking highly for several keywords. The site has been neglected for some considerable period of time. A new group of people are interested in revamping the site, updating content, removing some of the existing content, and generally refreshing the site entirely. In order to go forward with the site, significant changes need to be made. This will likely involve moving the entire site across to wordpress. The directory software (edirectory.com) currently being used has not been designed with SEO in mind and as a result numerous similar pages of directory listings (all with similar titles and descriptions) are in google's results, albeit with very weak PA. After reading many of the articles/blog posts here I realize that a significant revamp and some serious SEO work is needed. So, I've joined this community to learn from those more experienced. Apart from doing 301 redirects for pages that we need to retain, is there any optimal way of removing/repairing the current URL structure as the site gets updated? Also, is it better to make changes all at once or is an iterative approach preferred? Many thanks in advance for any responses/advice offered. Cheers MacRobbo
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | macrobbo0 -
Linking Back
Hello, I have a blog www.digitaldiscovery.eu and I have been working the link building. Now I have a few links pointing into my blog and in Google Webmaster and in Open Site Explorer I can see the URL of those websites. In scale from 1 to 10 how usefull is to have a blogroll in my blog pointing back to those high PR links? How usefull is this in link-building strategy? Tks in advance! PP
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | PedroM0 -
Link Request Email on Site`s Link Pages
Hello I have assembled a list of web-sites that have "Links" section that has a list of persons` favorite tools. Those pages have a link to my competitor. I know my tool is just as good if not better and want to request a link. I`m thinking of sending an email asking for a link and offering a small amount of money for it. Questions: A) How much should I offer? Should I offer anything at all B) Is there an email style that someone can suggest that has been tested and proven to work for this type of situtation?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | hellopotap0