Do outbound links affect SEO?

[gk_awadhiya]

I do not have much idea about SEO. I have read that inbound links are of much importance. I want to know do outbound lins also have any effect?

GK Awadhiya

[hooperman]

Having outbound links on your pages won't affect your seo to any great degree, but if you provide links that are useful to your visitors, they are more likely to come back.

[mad4]

Having quality outbound links DOES have an effect on your rankings and the trustworthiness of your site.

[hooperman]

Having quality outbound links DOES have an effect on your rankings...
Oh, I didn't know that. I knew that linking to dodgy sites was a bad idea but I didn't realise that having quality outbound links affects your ranking. How does that work?

[Cryogenius]

Linking to sites that are related to the subject on your site helps the search bots figure out what your site is about. It is also good for your keyword density too, so make sure that your HREF TITLEs have good text (no spam).

For example, if you have a web site about Xbox games, then link to Microsoft's Xbox webpage, and use a HREF TITLE like "Microsoft Xbox Games".

Cryo.

[ChildeRoland]

I agree, but make sure the sites you are linking to are (1) authority sites and superior in every way to 95% of sites within the industry and (2) aren't going to steal business away from you. In the example where an xbox gaming site links to microsoft - great. If you are a bridal jewelry retailer and you link to Davids Bridal because of the weight it carries in google - not so great.

[seo-mumbai]

yes little but to be frank outbound links are always bad to website.they say as good preff u must give links but it will not help u 1% also acc to me.simple example is if u remove all outbound links your site rabks better.because every outbound link will share your site weight

[mad4]

yes little but to be frank outbound links are always bad to website.they say as good preff u must give links but it will not help u 1% also acc to me.simple example is if u remove all outbound links your site rabks better.because every outbound link will share your site weight

Thats wrong. Quality outbound links do have a positive effect on your rankings. They help you get authority status.

[hooperman]

Thats wrong. Quality outbound links do have a positive effect on your rankings. They help you get authority status.
I'd be interested to see the data that led you to that conclusion. Is there any that I could look at?

[mad4]

No specific data. Just my experience. Oh, and these guys (http://www.seomoz.org/blogdetail.php?ID=403) think it helps too.

[rpoon]

Yes good outbound links help your ranking. Obviously keep them within your web - site topi area.


:) :)

[Cryogenius]

It is myth that outgoing links steal page rank from your site. It's simply not true.

[hooperman]

No specific data. Just my experience. Oh, and these guys (http://www.seomoz.org/blogdetail.php?ID=403) think it helps too.
The very first sentence says "Over at Sitepoint forums, Aspen (a very well-respected and knowledgable member of their community) disagrees with me on whether outbound links on a web page can affect your rankings at the search engines."

So already there is disagreement between two 'authority' figures in the seo world.

"Quality outbound links do have a positive effect on your rankings. They help you get authority status." is merely an opinion with no research data to back it up. It's fine to have opinions, but it's confusing to readers here (or at least me :)) to present them as fact.

EDIT: Thanks for the link by the way. I've read the opinions of the posters but couldn't find much real information. Although I can appreciate both sides of the argument, I'll reserve judgement until I see some evidence.

[seodelhi]

Outbound links to authority and unique content sites definetly help a site in terms of SEO.

While linking to other sites if one use his keywords as the anchor text for outgoing links, then this has a very gud effect on the SEO for those keywords, besides it allows search engines like google to know the theme of your site, a factor which it uses in ranking.

[hooperman]

Following mad4's link, I found this link (http://www.sitepoint.com/forums/showthread.php?t=300622) very interesting. The crux of it is that opinion (even 'expert') is divided on this matter.

[Alan Murray]

This is only a theory but there are a growing number of experts supporting this. Linking to other quality sites that your visitors would be interested in sounds like good enough on its own.

I don’t understand Michael Martinez comments saying it is vital however.

[klown]

Basically people don't know for sure one way or another. But i for one will write my content so that when it is natural for a link to go to someplace then i will put the link there. I think the below is a good way to give the customer information without them leaving your site, and still provide a link to the authority website on the topic.

My site has a section on insurance companies that we provide insurance for. If you go there it will let you click on any of the insurance companies.

This link brings you to an information page about the company (still on my site). Now finally at this page it provides a link to the insurance company's official site.

At this point i have outbound links opening in a new window so that they wont actually leave my site.

[Cryogenius]

Following mad4's link, I found this link (http://www.sitepoint.com/forums/showthread.php?t=300622) very interesting. The crux of it is that opinion (even 'expert') is divided on this matter.
I didn't read the whole thread, but I did spot a post by Aspen where he says:
Outgoing links may be used when deciding which keywords your site will be ranked on.
However they are absolutely not used to rank your site.
Now, this isn't a definative answer, but it does suggest that there are actually two questions here. One about if outgoing links improve rankings in SERPs, the other about search bots detecting the right keywords. My view is that a small number of outgoing links are important, but you don't need to have lots.

On another subject, "leaking PageRank" is a big argument, and you can find many articles on the web about it, for example this one (http://www.entrepreneurs-journey.com/276/does-rank-leak-exist-pagerank-paranoia/).

Cryo.

[seodelhi]

I think the below is a good way to give the customer information without them leaving your site, and still provide a link to the authority website on the topic.


If everybody begans to think on these lines, then the WWW would not remain the web, after all its the links from one site to other that makes the web.

If people start reducing outgoing links thinking that it will hinder the SEO of their sites, then how would one ever think of doing SEO.

We all know how important links(both incoming and outgoing) are for SEO, without links there is no seo and no internet.

Therefore, it would be very foolish for a search engine which incorporates such a thing in their algo so as to reduce ranking of a site which links to other quality site.

This is my logic and i strongly believe if you link to quality content you need not worry at all.

[klown]

If everybody begans to think on these lines, then the WWW would remain the web, after all its the links from one site to other that makes the web.

If people start reducing outgoing links thinking that it will hinder the SEO of their sites, then how would one ever think of doing SEO.

We all know how important links(both incoming and outgoing) are for SEO, without links there is no seo and no internet.

Therefore, it would be very foolish for a search engine which incorporates such a thing in their algo so as to reduce ranking of a site which links to other quality site.

This is my logic and i strongly believe if you link to quality content you need not worry at all.

Seems that a lot of people are worried about customers leaving their site.. i know i am. Thats why i create the information page instead of just letting customers go directly to the insurance company's officical page.

[Bondat]

Having quality outbound links DOES have an effect on your rankings and the trustworthiness of your site.

I totally disagree on this one.
outbound links do not affect your rankings.
This is a myth. Prove me wrong.

http://www.sitepoint.com/forums/showthread.php?t=182915
Please read this article to help you about this one.
Here's one part of the article.
Do outbound links improve your ranking?

No. This is a myth.

[learnseo]

Hi all,
According to me i think the idea of outbound links are very risky kind of because if you have good links on your link page (Keyword Specific and PR specified), helpful for the users/visitors than obviously it will effect your ranking positively as outbound link is also the main factor for your ranking but unfortunately if you approach to bad sites (Not Relevant and PR 0) than it will not help you rather it will make you down in SERP.
Let me explain my point with an example:
If i have a site of Automobiles and i have 20-30 outbound links on my link page of automobile industry which have PR value 3-4, than it will be beneficial for me but if i have links like dating, pet care, health on my link page than obviously it will be of no use? Isn't?
Moreover one more risk which involves is if 1-2 outbound links get penalised due to some reason than it will also effect your site. So always approach to good sites.

Hope it will help you out,
Thanks & Regards,

[ahkip]

Having quality outbound links DOES have an effect on your rankings and the trustworthiness of your site.

i second that.

[stymiee]

i second that.

Baloney.

It's a myth and an easy one to understand. If they actually had any value everyone would do it and thus it would have no real value in a search engine's algorithm. It's too easy to manipulate and the links in no way indicate the actual quality of the content on the page. And "look like an authority"? There are lots of ways that can be accomplished that are outside the control of the webmaster to do that (and are already being used by the search engines). People who believe this myth only hurt their own sites and help the sites they link to.

[mad4]

It's a myth and an easy one to understand. If they actually had any value everyone would do it
Everybody does do it. You show me a real authority site that doesn't link out to some other good sites.

and thus it would have no real value in a search engine's algorithm. It's too easy to manipulate and the links in no way indicate the actual quality of the content on the page.
Nobody is manipulating the search engines. The search engines want to show content in the serps that is genuinly useful to its users. If that conten has an article with some links to other related resource then thats exactly what the search engines want to see.

[stymiee]

Everybody does do it. You show me a real authority site that doesn't link out to some other good sites.If everyone does do it then how can it have any value? And an authority site is a site that has a lot of incoming links to it because it contains quality content. Not because it links to other sites about the same content.

Nobody is manipulating the search engines. The search engines want to show content in the serps that is genuinly useful to its users. If that conten has an article with some links to other related resource then thats exactly what the search engines want to see.The search engines want pages that have content relevant to the user's query. Not links to the content relevant to the user's query. The search engines can just link to those pages themselves and would rank them higher in the SERPs if they were more relevant.

[Cryogenius]

Relevant links are important to search engines, which is why anchor text is so important. Any keywords that are in the anchor text (or URLs) are weighted heavier than those in the body of the text.

My view is this: maybe outbound links do help, maybe they don't; there is clearly a huge divide over this. However, there is no good reason why you should not have outbound links. The benefit is uncertain, but there definately is no harm in having them. There is no such thing as PR leak. You need to have some outbound links, just don't waste too much time and effort trying to optimise them.

Cryo.

[seodelhi]

Relevant links are important to search engines, which is why anchor text is so important. Any keywords that are in the anchor text (or URLs) are weighted heavier than those in the body of the text.

My view is this: maybe outbound links do help, maybe they don't; there is clearly a huge divide over this. However, there is no good reason why you should not have outbound links. The benefit is uncertain, but there definately is no harm in having them. There is no such thing as PR leak. You need to have some outbound links, just don't waste too much time and effort trying to optimise them.

Cryo.


I agree in totality.

[stymiee]

Relevant links are important to search engines, which is why anchor text is so important. Any keywords that are in the anchor text (or URLs) are weighted heavier than those in the body of the text. For incoming links. Not outgoing links.

My view is this: maybe outbound links do help, maybe they don't; there is clearly a huge divide over this. However, there is no good reason why you should not have outbound links. The benefit is uncertain, but there definately is no harm in having them. There is no such thing as PR leak. You need to have some outbound links, just don't waste too much time and effort trying to optimise them.You're right about providing outbound links if they are relevant. Not doing so because you are worried about SEO is silly. But there is such a thing as PR leak. It only matters if you care about it though. And you don't need to have outbound links. It's quite a statement to say a page isn't relevant if it doesn't have outbound links. What about an article? Or blog post? Do they have to link to an external site to rank well or be relevant? Can't they be what the other sites are linking to?

[spyrochan023]

Like hooperman said Outbound links does not affect your SE Ranking.

[infonote]

In journals, references can be considered outbound links.
It is minor but i think it helps.

[dynamike]

I have yet to see anyone post anything to support an argument in either direction.

Content is king. Take care of your readers. Provide quality content and links where applicable. Your readers will appreciate you for it and visit again in the future.

SE's are developed with the user in mind. SE's don't want someone to search for one thing only to have something completely useless returned as the result. They want for their users to find what the are looking for.

The WWW was founded and gained popularity as the information superhighway. Keep that in mind and your PR will follow.

Of course this is just my opinion and I have no facts to back it up. But I think the principals are sound.

Mike

[brenda]

outbound links pass PR; hence its clear it effects SEO hugely. Usually serps drop a website when ol's are higher than bl's.