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
-
Ran a backlink competitor analysis and found that the competitor has their links coming from various linkedin and youtube posts but my client does the same thing and im not seeing any links coming from those sources for them?
Ran a backlink competitor analysis and found that the competitor has their links coming from various linkedin and youtube posts but my client does the same thing and im not seeing any links coming from those sources for them?
Link Building | | Stongex0 -
links
Hi, in our Google Search Console account, all of our links, built up over a long time have disappeared. they just vanished. it was for a Cardiff demolition company, we work for. any idea why links would just vanish?
Link Building | | sarahwalsh0 -
Is it a good practice to get link for your original page by shorter URL links
Hello Moz Community, I have a question regarding getting links on bitly, tiny, or an other url shortner, Is it a good practice to get link for your page by shorter url I mean lets suppose i am getting natural guest post link from content for my blog home page
Link Building | | JoeySolicitor
https://coupontoaster.com/blog/ ; and shorten it with bitly and then hyper link so is it a good practice am I getting the same power and SEO consideration as if i would have done this without url shortener. And what anchor texts shall i be using like rich anchor text or any other like click here, visit here, bitly or etc Please kindly help me with this thanks1 -
Best Methods and Tools for Monitoring your Website's Backlinks
Recently, I've launched two websites. I want to make sure I'm doing a good job monitoring our link building efforts. I'm see a lot of tools out there to supplement my use of Open Site Explorer. What I want to know is what tools I should be using to monitor my links? My ultimate goal would be to have the data to track the number of links I'm adding a month so that I can use it for reporting. There is another layer. Because the sites are new, OSE is actually not reporting any links found. I can only find reported links through Google Search Console. Any advice? Is this something where I will just have to wait for everything to get indexed?
Link Building | | JasonKhoo0 -
When buying used domains, how do i see the links pointing to that domain? OSE not showing links
when buying used domains, how do i see the links pointing to that domain? Sometimes the open site explorer doesn't show any links to the domain, especially if the domain is parked. Obviously a domain for sale with 1000 domains linking to it has lots of SEO Value right? Thanks mozzers!
Link Building | | Ron100 -
Links from Real Estate Websites Link Page, Do or Don't?
It seems that real estate sites have at times been under heavier scrutiny from the search engines. But real estate agents get networking, which makes acquiring those links a little bit easier. Plus with localization of search, I think real estate sites may give off a good GEO scent. Should SEO's go for links from real estate websites? Does a reciprocal link devalue said links?
Link Building | | Thos0030 -
Should I Just Copy A Competitor's Backlinks?
Forgive the newbie question, but now that I have found SeoMoz and OpenSiteExplorer, should I just piggy back on my competitors backlinks? What would be the downside? By way of explanation, I've never had the need to explore SEO before. Our site, Widgets.com has always ranked highly for all Widgets keywords because we have the keyword in our domain and our site has been around since 1998. But out of the blue this summer, a site, let's call them WidgetsCircus.com suddenly began outranking us on widgets keywords, and pretty much every keyword we can imagine in our little widget universe. Now that I have run OpenSiteExplorer, I can see how they've done it. They've pretty much spent the last year commenting on blog posts all over the place, editing wiki pages, etc., and built thousands of links for all these widget keywords. So, I'm wondering: why shouldn't I just go down the list of links and do exactly what they've done? Where they commented on a blog, why don't I just comment right along side them. Obviously, this has worked for them! Wouldn't it work for us too? Or is that too simple?
Link Building | | brianmcc0 -
Finding competitor's 301's
Is there a way to find out what domains a competitor has 301'd to their main site? I am wondering if a competitor has hidden back links using a 301'd site.
Link Building | | EugeneF0