Welcome to the SEO tutorials, and today we will discuss outbound links. If you are a new blogger or an existing blogger, the outbound links use and its value should be known to you. It is known to many, but not in practice by many bloggers. In fact, you will see few successful blogs as compared to the failed blog. The only reason for their success is, they are utilizing and exploring the SEO as per their need. But, yes in an organic ways.
We have already covered in details:
- Importance of the inbound links.
- What is the value of the internal links?
- You should go for paid links or not?
What are outbound links?
The outbound links are links from your website to the second, third, or countless but the related domains. It will help the search engines to understand your website, and hence it will improve the search appearance.
The outbound links will help your site:
- By providing richer content to your readers.
- Relevant links will clear the doubt of the search engine about the niche.
- Trust and relevancy for the reader and the search engines.
- It will help you to build relationship with the same niche sites.
- It will save your user’s time. For example, your readers will not go for the searching the topic, if you have given the reference link in your content.
- The outbound links will generate blog traffic for you as well. How? The inbound links for you is an outbound link for a website who has mentioned your site.
Can read: Importance of the On page SEO checklists.
Outbound links – How it will work?
Let’s check the working way of the outbound links. We will understand it with a simple example.
You can externally link to the other domain in two ways, either Dofollow or nofollow.
Dofollow outbound links Example:
If you want to pass the link juice to the external link, then you can do like this:
<a herf=”http://www.myoutlink.com”> My outbound link</a>
Here, we have used an anchor text to create a hyperlink. We have linked to the myoutlink, and we have intended to pass on the link juice, because we have not mentioned the “nofollow” value in the rel attribute.
Nofollow outbound links Example:
In case, you don’t want to pass the link juice, then use rel=”nofollow” attribute in the anchor tag.
<a herf=”http://www.myoutlink.com” rel=”nofollow”> My outbound link</a>
We have used the same example, but this time link to the myoutlink.com is the nofollow one.
Read: Learn Why to get or give dofollow or nofollow link?
Myth about the Outbound links
We will not talk about the unfamiliar myths, we will just consider two or probably three myths about the outbound links:
- Penalty for linking to the Bad neighbors – Yes, it is true that bad neighbors will hurt your SEO score, and hence traffic. But it does not mean that you cannot link to the good and relevant websites. In fact, sometimes editorial links make a relation among the bloggers.
- Should not link to low page rank sites? – Let’s take your example, you might be in a stable position, but this happens because someone trusted you and your credibility and that is why linked to you. Yes, it is true that if you will link to the low page rank site, then for sure they will get more benefits, but if the content is helpful and relevant to your niche, then probably it will add value to your site.
- High bounce rate – Well, this is true that your outbound links will steal your traffic, and increase the bounce rate of your website. But, my question to you is, why don’t you trust your content? Don’t you think because of you, your visitor got quality things to learn? As far as bounce rate is concerned, you can set outbound links to open in a new window.
Can Read: What is the Google analytics bounce rate?
Cons of the outbound links
We have seen the uses and benefits of the outbound links. Now we will see how the outbound link will hurt your website.
Steal Visitors – The upfront disadvantage of using the outbound links is, it will take away your visitor to that mentioned website. The simple click by your user will direct him/her to the new domain.
Tips: You can overcome by using the target_blank attribute in the anchor tag. The use of this attribute will open the link in the new window, after reading the information the user will return to your website.
Bad neighbors – This is another problem with the outbound linking. If you have mentioned a domain that had involved into the blackHat SEO, then probably it will hurt your own SEO points as well.
Tip: Try to give or get links from higher authority sites. You can get links from the low authority sites as well, but make sure they were not involved in any black hat SEO activities.
Lose trust – If you will mention a site which is not relevant to your content or niche, then it will irritate your visitors. Because they are looking for the information, and your non-relevant outbound links are wasting their time.
Tip: Never test the patience of your visitors or search engines, because both have many options to check on the internet. Always try to support your readers with the relevant outbound links.
Requires updating – What if, your mentioned outbound links have been moved or deleted? The user will see 404 errors, and certainly it will not favor you in any case.
Tip: You need to check outbound links time to time. It will assure the accuracy of the information you will provide to your readers.
Conclusion
We have just covered the outbound links, its importance and why to use? The only thing you should avoid is going for too many outbound links. The other thing that you should remember is the relevancy of the links always matter, whether it is an inbound, internal or outbound links.