Outbound links for SEO
-
A colleague of mine is arguing that having the right outbound links on your website is important for SEO. It seems to me that it would help Google and other SEs to categorize your site, but it wouldn't be a significant ranking factor in itself as anyone could do that.
This is being used as an argument to keep links on our site linking to theirs. I've not done any experiments with it, however, and the site in question is ranking fairly well currently. I just don't think that's the main ranking factor as they have fairly good backlinks as well.
Anyone have direct experience with this sort of argument?
Thanks,
Tom
-
EGOL makes good points here. I've seen the opposite happen, too. An SEO firm links to the Wikipedia definition of website, and I can only assume it's meant to show the search engines that they link to authoritative sites. However, it really doesn't fit in the context of the site, and makes things appear very odd.
-
That's an excellent philosophy. Thanks for the great answer.
-
I believe that great websites link to other great websites. If nobody linked out the web would not be the web. Based upon that, I think that links to great websites get a tiny smile from google.
Each day I add a few links from my website to other websites. The requirement that these other websites must meet to get the link is that they must in someway be distinctly superior to my website. I only link up, never down.
I am telling my visitors... HEY! LOOK AT THIS! If I think that my visitors are going to ask... "Why did he link to this? Then, no way will I place a link. Could not pay me. Because I want to send my visitors to great stuff - better than mine.
Generally, I find, if someone is arguing with me about something, I don't do it.
So, do these guys have something awesome, kickass or wonderful that is distinctly better than mine. If they don't then drop the link to their site and find something better. When they ask WTF? Just tell 'em that you link up to better stuff.
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
-
Gathering links
There are numerous "Ultimate Guides" to linkbuilding, outreach, etc., and they are all written to teach you the art of linkbuilding. The only thing these guides don't tell you is that following them takes a massive amount of time and doesn't guarantee to get good links at all. We're all in online marketing, and maybe we online marketeers are familiar with linking to other websites, posts that we like, etc. and maybe that's why we can write these guides but in other niches it really doesn't work that way 🙂 I'm wondering what techniques/tactics/strategies you guys are using in less straightforward niches to get quality links to your blogposts. To give you an idea, we launched an article a couple of weeks ago targeting a very competitive keyword. The article got shared over 100 times on LinkedIn/Twitter/etc. and already ranking pretty good, but REAL backlinks are still missing. How to get people to link to that article?
Link Building | | jorisbrabants0 -
Wierd link
We have recently receive linek from one website. The site is quite very powerful for the word we try to rank, however the link is kind of wired. This is how it looks like: http://villasdiani.com/?db The webmaster of the site said that he ads (?db) on the end so as we would see on our analytics the traffic from his site.. Also the link is from footer...is this good or it does not have value
Link Building | | VillasDiani0 -
SEO Value Of Non-Indexed Links
I have a link built to a site, but it's not showing up in Open Site Explorer and doesn't appear to be indexed currently by Google. Does anyone know of any research done on SEO value if any on non-indexed links? Thanks
Link Building | | EmarketedTeam0 -
How do you check to see if your site (site A) has already been linked to by another site (site B) when you have a large site with lots of links
There are some basics in SEO relating to finding out about who has linked to whom that I could use some help with.
Link Building | | hughman0 -
LINK BUILDING - Does it really matter if the link is not relevant?
Hi guys, I have just done a lot of link buillding and I thought I am just going to link build and I am not going to go after RELVANT links. I have property/real esate website and I have been any kind of link builidng and I have noteced some good increases in rankings.. So my questions is; Does it really matter if the link is relvant to property or real estate if I have got ranking increases? Or will it later harm my site?? Thanks Gareth
Link Building | | GAZ091 -
Link Directories
Hi there, We're very shortly launching a new website so as part of our link strategy we will be linking to directories found with the Link Acquisition Assistant for various keyword searches. I was wondering at what point is it not worthwhile submitting to these directories with regards PA and DA? For example if a directory has a domain authority of 69 but the page authority for the keyword in question is only 1, would it be a waste of time? Cheers
Link Building | | TalarMade0 -
New ways to get links (excluding on site link bait)?
Fellow SEOs, I’m looking for a new way to reach out to bloggers and site owners for links. There are quite a few link bait techniques to lure bloggers thanks to = amazing content, infographics,...but there are not so many articles on ways to contact bloggers/webmasters and ask for links... We all know that contacting site owners directly and politely asking then to place a link on their home page is as useful as a comb in Bruce willis’s hand. Link exchange is as dead as the Dodo and business partner links are usefull and easier to get but opportunities are often limited. I have been organizing contests for bloggers recently and it has been quite successful up to now, but I always like to have a spare trick up my sleeve. So if any of you have a decent method to reach out to bloggers/webmaster and get decent links please let me know, I will be forever thankful ; ) Cheers
Link Building | | ref.price0
