Outbound links and their pro's and con's
-
So I was wondering if there was a general consensis regarding the amount of outbound links you have coming from your domain to other domains and if there is a correlation between the more you have going out, the more (for want of a better word) damage you can do to your domain.
EG: is a site with good domain authority better to keep the short leash on handing out links to external sites? Does this make the link juice from the site more valuable?
-
Wait.... your question is so extreme that I must answer in a realistic way...
Apple is never, ever, ever going to link to every computer website. Some of them are not relevant enough to content on Apple's website. Some of them are not good enough for Apple to give them a link. Some computer websites are blackhat.
The day that Apple starts linking to everything everywhere is the day that their links are worthless. Keep that in mind when you start linking out. Keep that in mind when you evaluate the value of a link coming to you.
Link only to relevance. Link only to quality. Link only to good sites. If you do that you will have a great site.
You keep looking for a "limit". The limit isn't a number. The limits are relevance, quality and virtue.
-
Great. Thanks guys. I guess it was more a question of 'do you think there is a limit to outbound links'.
EG: If you're a computer company, then getting a link to your site from apple.com would be gold. But if every computer website in North America got a link from the apple site, would that devalue either a) The link value or b) apple's domain value.
I know thats an extreme example, but thought it might shed some light on the 'how many links it too many' question.
Thanks again.
-
According to the tools offered by SeoMoz, there is some value to outbound linking. For sites I work with,. I will frequently link out to other websites I feel could be beneficial to the end users experience (without linking to the competition of course). I see no reason why there would be a penalty. In fact, I would think any search engine would respect that you are not an island but contributing easy access to relevant information to the greater internet community.
Don't worry about passing PR and losing it because you are linking out. Too much thought goes into PR and it's effectiveness. Personally, I have sites that outrank high PR websites that reflect a 1 or 2 (compared to a 5 or 6).
-
...general consensis regarding the amount of outbound links...
Just go out and look at other sites. Most of them do not link out freely. They worry about giving away linkjuice, they worry about helping competitors, they worry about losing traffic, they worry about damaging their income.
if there is a correlation between the more you have going out, the more damage you can do to your domain.
If there was a problem with linking out then wikipedia would not rank for anything.
The web is all about linking and I highly doubt that google would penalize sites for doing it. In fact, which would you rank higher... a kickass article with no external links or the identical kickass article that links out to all of the most important information on the web about related topics? Which would you value if you were a searcher?
Link out freely and links will flow back to you.
is a site with good domain authority better to keep the short leash on handing out links to external sites?
You don't need to keep a leash on the links what you need to watch out for is linking to trash. I you are linking only to site that are better than your own then I am betting that you will be rewarded with links, likes, domain queries, rankings and more.
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
-
Question about reciprocal link building. I'm not an SEO professional, just a local service business owner.
I did a link page on my website 13 years ago and never took it down. Should we scratch that page all together? Is it ok with Google to do a page on Recommended local service providers. Maybe I can keep some of those reciprocal links if that's the case...
Link Building | | FVLMS0 -
Spam links - what would you do?
Hello, A few months back our website was hacked which we noticed quickly and got fixed. However, there still is a lot of dodgy backlinks, linking to the spam pages. They come up in Webmaster Tools, Moz and SEM rush. According to the Moz Spam tool, a few of them have been given 7 flags which Moz suggests gives a 30% chance of being penalised by Google. The website has great rankings (position 1-3 in most targeted keywords) so I am scared of doing something that will harm the rankings, however I also aware that Google may do an update which could take these spam links into account. I have no experience of using the disavow tool but from reading up about it, it should only be used as a last resort. So my question is - what would you do?
Link Building | | N2Digital0 -
Are links from charities really better than 'normal' links.
Hi Guys. Just wondering about this idea that links from Charities are particularly good. I've heard people say that links from .org sites are particularly strong. But anyone can get a .org domain, it's just that charities tend to use them more often. Right? I just don't get the logic. Can anyone give more detail about this? Is it a myth? Is there quality info on this topic I can check out? We're working with several charities at the moment, and they all seem happy to blog and link to us...so I just wanted to know a little more. Isaac.
Link Building | | isaac6630 -
Should I built a microsite for client's new service or add a new section to an existing new website?
We built a new website for one of our clients. Covering services A B C mostly commercial and industrial B2B construction service. We bought him a brand new domain called serviceAcompanyname.com The website uses a brand new domain and as no DA and PA yet. The client wants a new section added to the Website concerning a new service ( we are going to call it service D) which is still a local service but offered to Home owners. Should we buy a new domain called serviceD-region-companyname.com and make a microsite covering the topic and work on backlinks and links in parallel for both sites, or would we be better off just adding a new section to the existing website and work on the main DA. Will it be easier in the future to enhance 2 different domains or a single one even though all services are not targeting the same audience.
Link Building | | escteam0 -
Should I ask sites that link to me to update links that redirect?
I have found some links to my site that go through a single 301 redirect to get to my site. Should I contact these websites to ask them to update the link, or is that not worth the time?
Link Building | | RCF0 -
Pros and Cons of Links in Articles
My question pertains to articles that I'll be submitting to certain article directory sites. What are the pros and cons (If any exists) of adding links to the body of an article for certain keywords vs. just adding a link to the website at the bottom (i.e. visit us at www.somewebsite.com) ?
Link Building | | qlkasdjfw0 -
So I ran into a site that was not ranking 4 days ago and has over 2 million links to it on some keywords. My guess is this is a link bomb, but the issue is this is pushing one of my sites down. Does anyone know a good way to over come a bomb like this?
So I ran http://www.riogrande.com/ into this site not that long ago and wanted to see if any other SEO's have an opinion on it. I've seen a Google bomb before, but the amount of links going into this URL is insane. The thing is how does one over come a Google Bomb? Do you just wait to see what Google does or do you just hope to rank under that URL? I should also note that it appears that all the keywords to it are relevant to the sites content. Let me know your thoughts. Thanks
Link Building | | kateG12980 -
Market Samurai's Latest Link Building Tool
Hey, Would be interested to see everyone's opinion on the latest software form Market Samurai http://www.noblesamurai.com/as/video/3 It's basically an article spinning & syndication promising to be the 'biggest in the world'. Most things they mention in the video is quite contradictory to everything SEOmoz teaches about link building. What's everyone's thoughts about Market Samurai and their practices?
Link Building | | LukeyJamo0