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To get the quality association from an outbound link, does that have to be a "follow" link?

by Chris-
4 replies
  • SEO
    • |
I've read in various places that Google looks at the quality of your outbound links, and from those makes assumptions that the quality of your site is somewhat like the quality of those outbound links.

So, obviously, a few outbound links to high quality sites (Wikipedia is usually the easiest to fit into anything) will improve Googles rating of your site.

To get the benefit from those quality outbound links, do those links have to be "follow", or is it better for them to be "nofollow"?

thanks in advance for any info on this

Chris-
#association #follow #link #outbound #quality
  • Profile picture of the author paulgl
    I have never seen any point in outbound links. Except paid ones.
    I see no value in sending people away. Not sure where this
    idea ever came up. I mean think about it. Why does wikipedia
    need the exposure? There can't be any magic in outbound links
    raising yours up. Just makes no sense.

    It matters not if you use nofollow or not. Has nothing to do with
    anything in this case. It's to fight links you don't trust. So,
    all things being equal, it would seem that if google saw a nofollow,
    would they not trust it? Then not trust your site, as you are
    admitting you have links you don't trust? Then we go around in
    a circle debating nofollow.

    Nofollow does not mean not seen.

    So do some outbound links if you must. But only do it if it
    creates a good visitor experience. Remember though that you
    are sending people away. If I'm sending people away via a link,
    I'm getting paid for it.

    If you do internal linking, then obviously every link on a page gets
    watered down PR. So in this case, yes, you make the external
    links nofollow to keep yours from being further watered down.

    Paul
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    If you were disappointed in your results today, lower your standards tomorrow.

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  • Profile picture of the author TheUserName
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    • Profile picture of the author JustaWizard
      Outbound links to do not hurt you, but they don't necessarily "help" you either.

      Google's TOS does say you should no-follow paid links.

      The web is just that, a web of links. It's only "natural" that you'd have links that are outbound links, and while Google et al will not reveal their algorithm "secret sauce" (and it's constantly in flux) it looks "unnatural" if a site is link-hoarding.

      It's this simple: link out to RELEVANT, authoritative, quality sites, ONLY when where (and if) it makes sense and would be useful to your visitor within the context of the content you're linking out from; that's the criteria to follow.

      Hope that helps!
      David
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      • Profile picture of the author Chris-
        Thanks very much for the informative replies

        Chris-
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  • Profile picture of the author NastyBlast
    Originally Posted by Chris- View Post

    I've read in various places that Google looks at the quality of your outbound links
    All links are - follow - by default. I'm not sure why the terminology has sprung up leading to the perception that links have to be assigned: follow or do follow attributes.

    to answer your question: when Google looks at your outbound links is analyzing if they are relevant or not. This is very old and solid theory and I see no reason for it to change now even with the panda update. When you link out to a site it(the destination site) should be relevant to your site.

    if you have a site about apples it would make sense for you to link to other sites about apples. If you link to a site about automobiles that's not a relevant link. A few here and there should not be a problem. However if a significant amount of outbound links are not relevant to your site Google may consider you to be a link farm and you do not want that.

    Bottom line: if you are going to link to a site make sure it makes sense to do so by keeping it relevant.
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