Outbound links. External Links.
-
I have been reading alot on SEO and there is something confusing about having "Outbound links. External Links." on your main ranking page.
Some say that
- We shouldn't have any out bound links. (from Random website)
- According to Yoast, we should have outbound links. (yoast.com)
- we should have outbound links but we should add the "no-follow" tag. (from Random website)
Q: What should i do and follow?
If the answer is yes, how many outbound links is an appropriate amount per page? -
A link is like an editorial vote from one website to another.
If you can vouch for the quality of the site you are linking to, don't hesitate to place the link, provided it is relevant and useful to your visitors (and not just there for some kind of reciprocal link agreement for SEO = Bad).
On the flip side, blogs and forums that encourage user contributions often add the "nofollow" attribute to links by default, because you, the webmaster, may not be able to vouch for the quality of the sites your readers are linking to in a comments section, and the links are possibly being placed as part of a link scheme for SEO.
So, in short,
If you are placing a link on a web page or article because you think the site provides useful information that enhances your content = Good, go for it!
If you or a visitor places a link for the sole purpose of ranking improvement for a particular keyword = Proceed with caution.
-
Hi
I have to agree with both, having links to external websites isn't a bad thing, IMO it adds value to your website.
A simple way of looking at Google is that it was create by some university graduates who we're taught, like everyone at uni is to reference where you get your information from. So when they started 'Google' (I know it wasn't called Google initially), they used the fact if you linked of to somewhere it was like saying this website is a good source of information and the more links pointing at a page the more authoritative it must be, then came along SEO's who realised this and abused it and now you have a situation whereby too many spammy links will actually hurt your rankings.
But the core part of the algorithm which still helps rankings is outbound links, so if ever webmaster remove outbound links, google would suddenly struggle to rank websites.
Just image you are writing a university essay, does the link (source) add value to your article.
In terms of links in your footers, this is a bit different, this was an old black hat SEO tactic to stuff keyword anchor text links into your footer to boost other websites you owned, so links in the footer, think of more a user experience point of view rather than SEO, but a great question was asked on here (http://moz.com/community/q/sitewide-footer-links-bad-or-not).
Hope this was useful.
Thanks
Andy
-
Hi Kevin!
ABSOLUTELY you want to link to authoritative sites that provide additional resources and/or source information. The reason is simple, it creates a better user experience, and that's what Google wants to foster.
In the past it was the belief of some that you might dilute pagerank or authority by linking out to external sites. That's not the case today, if it ever was.
There are, of course, good practice to linking out:
- Make sure it's relevant/on-topic
- Make sure the site you're linking to isn't spammy or in a bad neighborhood (meaning a shady website)
- Don't overdo it! There's no need to link out from every sentence or paragraph. Again, just ask yourself, "Does it make sense to link out from this term or phrase?" "Would it benefit the reader?"
Wayne
-
Hi Kevin,
This is a question that I get all the time. In my opinion, having outbound links to non-competitive, but still related and authority websites is good.
For ex. if we are talking about a travel website, it does not harm to include a link towards the city destination's wiki page, or links towards museums or other "things to be seen" in the area.
Always, when you think of placing an outbound link on your website, I advice to think on the visitor's intent, and help them discover possibilities, which make your product even more interesting in their "eyes".
But once again, this is my personal opinion.
I hope it has helped. Gr., Keszi
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
-
How do I reduce the amount of internal links on my site?
Hi, Can someone help me with reducing the amount of internal links on our site please? https://www.thepresentfinder.co.uk Thanks Charlie
On-Page Optimization | | The-Present-Finder0 -
Pyramid link structure - how to noindex, nofollow
I'm talking about this article: https://moz.com/learn/seo/internal-link Take this sample: HOME --> Shirts --> Plain shirt --> shirt#1 Product page: noindex, follow all links except 1 from breadcrumbs to nearest category (plain shirts). SubCategory page (plain shirts): noindex, follow all links except 1 link from breadcrumbs to nearest category (shirts) and all products belonging to current subcategory. Category page (shirts): noindex, follow all links except 1 link from breadcrumbs to front page (site.com) and links to own subcategories. Front page: noindex, follow all links except 12 links to main categories (shirts, pants etc.) Is it correct? If I noindex some parts of website, will it be harmful?
On-Page Optimization | | SilverStar10 -
Duplicate anchor text vs poor relevance in internal links
We're writing a number of blog posts, all based around a particular head-term (call it "women's widgets"). Each post will be centered around a different long-tail keyword (e.g. "women's brandA widgets", "women's brandB widgets", "women's type1 widgets", etc.). We want to link from the blog posts back to the main "women's widgets" category-level page on our site. Should we: a) Use the words "women's widgets" in each blog post and link that to the "women's widgets" page? This would be the most relevant, but it also seems like using the same anchor text on all of the posts, and linking to the main page, is not good since Google doesn't like seeing the same exact anchor text all the time, right? b) Link the long-tail keyword ("women's brandA widgets") to the main "women's widgets" page? That would solve the anchor text duplication issue, but then the anchor text doesn't seem relevant to the page being linked to (it might never mention "brandA" on that main page at all), and I think it would also hurt the blog post's chances of ranking for the long-tail keyword since we're basically saying that there's a more relevant page for that keyword somewhere else (i.e. you shouldn't link out from a page using the phrase you're trying to optimize that page for). c) Link a nearby word/phrase instead? For example, we could say "Trust Companyname.com for your women's widget needs", and link "Companyname.com" to the "women's widget" page. By proximity to the keyword phrase, that may help a bit, but again the relevancy of the anchor text to the page being linked to is fairly low. I'd hate to have a bunch of "click here", "read this" or "company name" anchor texts being used, just in the name of not overusing the head-term in the anchor text. Are we just missing something, or misunderstanding Google's preferences? What do you do when you don't want to overuse a keyword in anchor text, but you still want to link to a main category-level page using the head-term in order to tell Google that that is the most relevant, best page for that keyword? Is anchor text duplication more of a problem for external backlinks, and less of an issue for internal interlinking? Do you have a different suggestion, other than what I outlined above? Thanks for the help!
On-Page Optimization | | BandLeader
John0 -
Internal Linking
If i link page A to page B then link page B back to page A would this have less effect than linking page A to page B only? Also are their any good resources for learning internal linking best practise? Thanks in advance.
On-Page Optimization | | Bossandy0 -
Total Links has doubled in less than one month!? Trust and Authority Drop
Hey Guys, Our website has just recently started to manage our website with SEO in mind and there are a few things that I am concerned about. 1. Domain authority, moztrust, mozrank have been dropping. 2. We had 368k links on 6/27 and on 7/11 we had 563k Is this a result of confusion between our www.websitenamehere.com and websitenamehere.com?
On-Page Optimization | | briggsb0 -
E-commerce On Page Concern - Links and Anchor Text
Hi, how you doing? I have a set of very specific questions or concerns about anchor text and linking on an e-commerce category page. I was wondering if you could give your opinions and counsel. I own an e-commerce store about steel construction products. I have several category and product pages. One example of my categories is this. URL http://aceromart.com/Losacero-25-Ternium.aspx My concerns or questions: I have several technical specs or sheets. Which i include the link on the right part in "Informacion Adicional". How should i link those? I am bit worried on the anchor text. Should i use something like [download "product" technical sheet] or just [technical sheet of product] . I dont want to cannibalize, but i also want to appear as descriptive as possible. what would you recommend? The same thing happens on my videos. How should i link my videos? Is there a best practice? **what would you recommend. ** Thanks in advance for your opinions!
On-Page Optimization | | JesusD0 -
Too many links on product pages
Hello, What do you do if there are too many links on product pages? With 18 products per page, there's 2 links per product for 120 links on many pages. There's 50 products in many categories, categories are at most 1 click from the home page. Should we use pagination or not? Thanks
On-Page Optimization | | BobGW0 -
Impact of nofollow links
Does anyone know what the impact of a nofollowed link is on the ranking value any given page has to distribute? For example, if I have 2 links on a page, both followed, I know those links each distribute nearly 50% of the total ranking value the current page has to offer. However, if one of those links is nofollowed, does that automatically mean the other link gets the ranking value cast off by the nofollowed link? In other words, the single followed link now distributes nearly 100% of the ranking value the page has to offer? It seems to me I remember hearing this was not the case and that the ranking value a nofollowed link would have if it were followed just evaporates. This would mean the single followed link still only passes on around 50%...not 100%. Is the effect different if the links are internal vs. external? If any citations are available to justify knowledge here, that would be great. I know a lot of people have opinions about this subject, but I'm not sure anyone knows Google's position. Thanks!
On-Page Optimization | | RyanOD0