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What Should I Do With These External Links?

by mrniceguy123
4 replies
  • SEO
    • |

Hello. In an effort to reduce my bounce rate, I'm going through all of my posts and I'm removing most of my external links.

My issue, is that I have a few series of posts on my site that expand upon information provided by people that are more qualified than I am in specific areas.

In my posts, I provide links to the articles produced by the "experts" to validate the point I expand upon within these particular posts.

I'm trying to figure out a good way to still reference these external sites, without using external links.

I was considering just providing the URL, and allowing visitors to copy/paste the URL's instead if they choose to, but I'm hesitant, as I think that would look a little "cheesy."

Am I wrong?

Do you have any other suggestions regarding how I can proceed with cleaning up these specific external links on my site?

Thanks for your time and help.
#external #links
  • Profile picture of the author RichKent
    Instead of removing links you could add target="_blank" to your links so they open in a new window. I'd prefer that to forcing users to copy/paste links.

    Another option is to simply quote the section of the article from the expert that's relevant. Usually you can boil down the important parts to fit within your article.

    Keep in mind that having some external links is a good thing for SEO.
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  • Profile picture of the author intergen
    Like Rich states use an excerpt from the article or relevant information and then attribute that to the web address (you don't need to use a hyperlink on the attribution). But also as Rich states Google does look upon this in a good way for SEO.

    So that's the direct answer but my question to you is are you sure that those external links are contributing to the high bounce rate? Check to see if people are leaving your site through those links before you do all of that work. Who knows maybe there is something else that is causing the high bounce rate.
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  • Profile picture of the author Stuart william
    Agree with Rich Kent , you can place the new window attribute in your external links in order to reduce bounce rate. Try to make your content more informative and add some more content.
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    • Profile picture of the author WebMeUp
      I believe there's no need to get rid of your external links. Providing reference to authority sites in your niche is #1 factor to improve your readers' experience.

      Eventually, it will help you build trust around your website and gain dedicated readers. Moreover, providing endorsement to sites that deserve it is a natural practice, and the more natural your content is, the better.

      I agree with Intergen, you should check out if it is the external links to blame for the high bounce rate, i.e. do people bounce when following these external links.

      If that's the case, perhaps quotation mode suggested by RichKent is a nice option.
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