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
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.
Having quality outbound links DOES have an effect on your rankings and the trustworthiness of your site.
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?
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.
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.
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.
I'd be interested to see the data that led you to that conclusion. Is there any that I could look at?
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.
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.
Following mad4's link, I found this link very interesting. The crux of it is that opinion (even 'expert') is divided on this matter.
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.
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.
I didn't read the whole thread, but I did spot a post by Aspen where he says: 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. Cryo.
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.
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.