Are External Links Really Bad for SEO?
-
I have a quality site with good PR and we have very few outbound links.
We are always looking for good content since it is a blog, and I get frequent requests from "guest bloggers"–some of which actually provide really high quality & unique content. But, of course, to get their content I have to give them at least 1 link.
I have always been taught that external links really hurt your site and that basically 1 outbound link cancels out 1 inbound link because they balance each other out.
Is this true? I always wondered why we must get penalized for linking out to good sites? It makes me get very "stingy" with my outbound links, whereas if my site would not be effected, I would want to be more generous.
Any suggestions & info would greatly help!
Thank you,
Afshin
-
Thanks, Dan. I appreciate the input!
-
very interesting. I may do that. This will certainly open a lot of possibilities if I can stop being afraid to link out to other sites. I was just told early on from several sources that outbound links hurt and I always carried that with me.
This was about 6-7 years ago when SEO was still more hazy for many people.
Afshin
-
Pick five articles on your website and go to the SERPs to see how each of them rank for several relevant keywords. Record your results.
Then, on each of those pages place a box in the sidebar that contains links to five fantastic pages on high authority websites that are about the same topic.
Wait three months then go out and check those rankings. I will bet that your rankings go up. I have satisfied myself that this is true.
-
I appreciate the response. I do like what you are saying and hope it is true. It is logical, that's for sure. Do we have any documentation that Google feels as you do also? That would really settle it for me.
But all in all, I think it is good advice to link to relevant quality sites that make sense to link to.
-
Great answer
-
I have always been taught that external links really hurt your site and that basically 1 outbound link cancels out 1 inbound link because they balance each other out.
I am going to refrain from making comments about your teachers.
If everybody linked to nobody the web would not be 'The Web". You know that. Google knows that. So you should be able to conclude that linking out is good.
The question that you should be asking is... "Who am I linking to?"
Let that be your guide.
My rule is to link out generously and often. But always do my best to link to sites or to content that is either superior to or complimentary to my own.
An article with abundant links out to high quality sites on the same topic is a richer resource than the same article with zero links - and I think that google will rank it higher.
But, if the Pope sends me a great article with a link to a payday loan site then I will hit the delete button.
-
Afshin
To my knowledge, outbound links do not cancel inbound links. They will flow PR if they're followed (which takes PR away from internal links, but this is not of worry. Look at all the best sites on the net, they ALL use outbound links!)
Its best to think of this based upon the engines and users.
Engines - there has actually been a very slight positive correlation shown between rankings and outbound links. Also, link out to sites that are similar in content to yours. Don't sell links of course, and don't go WAY overboard with outbounds.
Users - Link externally for users. Add outbound links based upon user value. Its that simple. And think about the "karma" too... if its a blogger who you genuinely like, you're building a relationship with them, and these relationships can provide great value in the future.
-Dan
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
-
Shopfiy Technical SEO: Internal Linking Structure
Hi Community, While Shopify’s canonical tag properly points to the preferred version of the URL (i.e./product/product-title), internal links still point to the various non-canonical versions throughout the site. For example, in collection pages, each product thumbnail links to non-canonical URLs (i.e. /collection/collection-title/products/product-title). I know it is not good as we have to keep the linking consistent. So, I read a blog post by Moz and changed the internal link to the canonical URL(i.e./product/product-title). My change is from{{ product.url | within: collection }} to {{ product.url }}. Very interestingly, I can manage the change for some collections but some collections don't work. Can you please suggest how I can change fix the linking for all collection pages? One of the collection example that works: https://shopmtn.eu/collections/dirty-rigger ; One of the collection example that doesn't work: https://shopmtn.eu/collections/truss My Shopify Template: Parallax. THANK YOU VERY MUCHbN1Heqq zoyDPco
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Insightful_Media0 -
Weird Site is linking to our site and links appears to be broken
I have got a lot of weird links indexed from this page: http://kzs.uere.info/files/images/dining-table-and-2-upholstered-chairs.html When clicking the link it shows 404. Also, the spam score is huge. What do you guys suggest to do with this?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Miniorek
Could it be done by somebody to get our rankings down or domain penalized? Best Regards
Mike & Alex0 -
23k Links from one doman pointing to a single page, good or bad?
Hey all, So I found a domain that GWT tells me has 23k links pointing to a landing page. I found that the link is part of their global nav as a text ad and that's why it's probably registering so many links. The site has a DA of 56, is this a bad thing? Could it be hurting the rest of my site's ability to rank? Thanks, Roman
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Dynata_panel_marketing0 -
301 Externally Linked, But Non-Producing Pages, To Productive Pages Needing Links?
I'm working on a site that has some non-productive pages without much of an upside potential, but that are linked-to externally. The site also has some productive pages, light in external links, in a somewhat related topic. What do you think of 301ing the non-productive pages with links to the productive pages without links in order to give them more external link love? Would it make much of a difference? Thanks... Darcy
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | 945010 -
Hosting and SEO
Hi all, Does the hosting of an website affect your SEO? We have a dynamic hosting currently, taking in account your knowledge and expertise, do you believe that this can affect SEO in any way? Thank you for your time. Good day. Monica
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | monicapopa2 -
OSE link report showing links to 404 pages on my site
I did a link analysis on this site mormonwiki.com. And many of the pages shown to be linked to were pages like these http://www.mormonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Planning_a_trip_to_Rome_By_using_Movie_theatre_-_Your_five_Fun_Shows2052752 There happens to be thousands of them and these pages actually no longer exist but the links to them obviously still do. I am planning to proceed by disavowing these links to the pages that don't exist. Does anyone see any reason to not do this, or that doing this would be unnecessary? Another issue is that Google is not really crawling this site, in WMT they are reporting to have not crawled a single URL on the site. Does anyone think the above issue would have something to do with this? And/or would you have any insight on how to remedy it?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | ThridHour0 -
Magento SEO firm
I'm looking for an SEO company that has substantial experience with the Magento shopping cart system. I've gone thru MOZ.com's Recommended List but I'm unsure of who specializes in Magento. Thanks.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | UncleXYZ0 -
Advertising links hurt SEO?
I'm working with a publisher who said that having DFA links on his site will hurt his SEO. He is taking my link and pointing it back to his site and then to mine. Does that sound right to you?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | GFTMarketer0