How do the Linkouts (the out-bound links) affect you website/blog?

17 replies
  • SEO
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Dear Warriors!
We have been discussing a lot about In-bound links, but how about the Out-Bound Links. Following are my questions:

1. Do they really affect your website or blog?

2. How many linkouts should be there in a blog post comprising of about 500 words; or there is no limit as such?

3. Best practices for external links?


I think I have confused you with my question. Let me explain it through one example:

Suppose I write an article on a person who happen to be an innovator. While writing his early life, education, his friends, his research and the things he has invented I use the following keywords in the article:
1. Westminster School
2. Oxford University
3. Stanford
4. His Personal blog,
5. Bill Gates
6. Microsoft
7. Android
9. His Inventions
8. The New York Times...and so on.

My question is do I have to link out on all the keywords above or just his personal blog and the things he has invented.

I hope I make sense now.
Thanks
#affect #external links #linkouts #links #outbound #outbound links #website or blog
  • Profile picture of the author backlinksrockstar
    A lot of SEO experts believe that search engines determine a page's rank using a lot of factors. Outbound links are just one of them. Having outbound links on the website shows that you are improving the value for your guests/visitors by giving them links for additional info relevant to the topic.This is because having outbound links on your website demonstrates that you are adding value for your visitors by providing them with links to additional information on your subject.
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    • Profile picture of the author Mousumi
      Please have a look in the explanation box above...I have tried to explain what I want.

      I will appreciate your thoughts.

      Originally Posted by backlinksrockstar View Post

      A lot of SEO experts believe that search engines determine a page's rank using a lot of factors. Outbound links are just one of them. Having outbound links on the website shows that you are improving the value for your guests/visitors by giving them links for additional info relevant to the topic.This is because having outbound links on your website demonstrates that you are adding value for your visitors by providing them with links to additional information on your subject.
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      • Profile picture of the author Liam Hamer
        I try to think of it in a "will this help the reader and add value to the article they are reading?" way, rather than a "how will this affect the SEO on my site?" way. I generally don't include too many outbound links per article, because I don't want the reader to get too distracted.
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        • Profile picture of the author Mousumi
          This is the reason why I use external links on my blog posts. I was just trying to know how it is perceived by Google...Considering the fact that over 90% traffic to my blog are organic and sent by Google only.

          Originally Posted by Liam Hamer View Post

          "will this help the reader and add value to the article they are reading?"
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          • Profile picture of the author Michael Shook
            It is not going to hurt your blog to link to relevant content that supports the ideas in your post.

            Blogs were the original social media platforms. Easy to publish, with little tech knowledge with mechanisms built in to make sharing content with other people easy. Trackbacks pingbacks, those ideas were designed to connect relevant material to form the structure of the web.

            But then some people who were not so interested in publishing and sharing as they were in selling things came along and invented all kinds of ways to scare people into thinking that their blogs would be injured in some way if they didn't follow a particular set of rules.

            SEO and counting links, and no follow vs do follow, all those kinds of ideas and the original purpose of having a blog got subsumed in marketing communities. And for a while, it was the thing to have isolated blog posts and pages for the sole purpose of ranking and people backward guessed at the algorithms that made pages rank and decided that there was a certain length of blog post that was the best and a certain amount of links that worked the best for ranking.

            And that might be true, probably not as relevant as having written something that people actually want to read, but a little bit relevant anyway.

            Long story short, put the number of links into your content, that will not distract the reader. In a 500 word post this is probably 2 or 3 max. I am guessing here, if its a list of great resources post, more would be OK.

            Use a couple of links to your pages or posts, which are relevant to the topic. And do not use one of those plugins which links every other word to some affiliate product. Especially one where the links popup in context. Oy.

            Anyway, you want your site to be a part of the interweb, to be integrated into the flow of the internet, and the way you do that is by linking to cool stuff in your post.
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            • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
              JMichealZ flirted with my point when he wrote:

              Long story short, put the number of links into your content, that will not distract the reader. In a 500 word post this is probably 2 or 3 max. I am guessing here, if its a list of great resources post, more would be OK.
              How many outbound links depends on the post content.

              I've done posts on my sites with 2,000 words and no outbound links. I've done 500 word posts with a dozen links or more. The former were mainly op/ed pieces that didn't require linking out, while the latter were resource lists where the links were the main content.

              It all depends on the context.

              As for comments, you have to be ruthless about policing them. If the link looks even a little hinky to you, or the comment arouses any suspicion, delete it.

              Because you can't control them, links from 'bad neighborhoods' won't harm you. Links to bad neighborhoods, on the other hand, can.
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            • Profile picture of the author Mousumi
              Thanks for explaining the Pros and Cons as well as the best practices!
              I appreciate your sparing time on my question.
              Many thanks

              Originally Posted by JMichaelZ View Post

              It is not going to hurt your blog to link to relevant content that supports the ideas in your post.
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  • Profile picture of the author denysapu
    Originally Posted by Mousumi View Post

    Dear Warriors!
    We have been discussing a lot about In-bound links, but how about the Out-Bound Links. Following are my questions:

    1. Do they really affect your website or blog?

    2. How many linkouts should be there in a blog post comprising of about 500 words; or there is no limit as such?

    3. Best practices for external links?
    1. Yes sure, and it's bad when you did links out to the irrelevant sites or sources.

    This link may will help you How many links per page?
    Signature

    Don't worry be happy!

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  • Profile picture of the author Weedy92
    Outbound links are totally fine! I actually use, and it shows you are providing more relevant content to readers which in my opinion builds the trust factor.. The one thing you want to watch out for is if you have blog comments enabled, it's best not to let a 100 people drop a comment with their links in it. Same goes for your posts don't make a 500 word post and make 10 outbound links in it. Only do a couple, and don't make every single article with outbound links..
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    • Profile picture of the author Mousumi
      Thanks for your words Weedy!

      I barely include any external link in the articles that just reflect my very own thoughts...But sometimes you happen to pick up some subjects that include a lot of important keywords; and I feel that the readers might be interested in clicking on some of them.

      My concern was 'will they harm my blog in any way?"

      Thanks for your input


      Originally Posted by Weedy92 View Post

      Outbound links are totally fine! I actually use, and it shows you are providing more relevant content to readers which in my opinion builds the trust factor.. The one thing you want to watch out for is if you have blog comments enabled, it's best not to let a 100 people drop a comment with their links in it. Same goes for your posts don't make a 500 word post and make 10 outbound links in it. Only do a couple, and don't make every single article with outbound links..
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  • Profile picture of the author Rod Cortez
    Any topics dealing with links (SEO) or linking belong in the SEO discussion forum:

    Adsense / PPC / SEO Discussion Forum

    RoD
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    "Your personal philosophy is the greatest determining factor in how your life works out."
    - Jim Rohn
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  • Profile picture of the author tpw
    Each outbound link should go to a different page than a previous link.

    For SEO purposes, Google will apply the keyword on a specific link to a particular URL on the first time it is used on a page. The second keyword applied to the a previously linked URL will be ignored. (If you doubt me, test it. I have tested it already.)

    The more important consideration is not what you are giving to others, but what you are giving to yourself.

    Authority websites link out to third-party resources, and for the sake of Google, they will give you extra credit if you are linking out to related authority websites. (Again, if you doubt me, test it. I have, and I know it to be true.)
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    Bill Platt, Oklahoma USA, PlattPublishing.com
    Publish Coloring Books for Profit (WSOTD 7-30-2015)
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    • Profile picture of the author Mousumi
      Hi Bill,
      You really confused me :confused::confused:

      Could you please check the comment box right under the discussion thread in which I explained my situation?

      For example, if I were to write an article on Bill Gates and the content included the keywords such as: Microsoft, Apple, Steve Jobs, Windows 7, Dell, Stanford, bill and melinda gates foundation etc. Am I supposed to link out to them?

      Please help me understand it.

      Originally Posted by tpw View Post

      Each outbound link should go to a different page than a previous link.

      For SEO purposes, Google will apply the keyword on a specific link to a particular URL on the first time it is used on a page. The second keyword applied to the a previously linked URL will be ignored. (If you doubt me, test it. I have tested it already.)

      The more important consideration is not what you are giving to others, but what you are giving to yourself.

      Authority websites link out to third-party resources, and for the sake of Google, they will give you extra credit if you are linking out to related authority websites. (Again, if you doubt me, test it. I have, and I know it to be true.)
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      • Profile picture of the author tpw
        Originally Posted by Mousumi View Post

        Hi Bill,
        You really confused me :confused::confused:

        Could you please check the comment box right under the discussion thread in which I explained my situation?

        For example, if I were to write an article on Bill Gates and the content included the keywords such as: Microsoft, Apple, Steve Jobs, Windows 7, Dell, Stanford, bill and melinda gates foundation etc. Am I supposed to link out to them?

        Please help me understand it.

        Linking out is optional, but there is usually a SEO benefit in doing so.
        Signature
        Bill Platt, Oklahoma USA, PlattPublishing.com
        Publish Coloring Books for Profit (WSOTD 7-30-2015)
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  • Profile picture of the author RyanLB
    Outbound links can actually benefit your SEO and pagerank, provided that you don't have an overwhelming amount of OBL's on your pages. It's obvious that there's going to be some type of benefit to linking out. It's the basis of Google's backlink reward system More backlinks = higher rank. They can't hurt a site that supports other sites with some links here and there. Just don't get carried away
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    I'm a Freelance Copywriter that helps Agencies, Startups and Businesses Educate Their Audience and Grow Sales
    Skype Me: r.boze
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  • Profile picture of the author seobro
    I have some experiments that prove out bound links are able to boost the rank of your web pages. For example, make sure that the main keyword is in both out bound and in bound links and that can really help you. Google do not like you to link to a neighborhood that has a poor quality score. Out bound links to bad places can penalize you. Please exercise some care.
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  • Profile picture of the author Mousumi
    Makes sense to me now
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