Wrenn Taylor Are outbound links important? Does Google rank you higher for linking out? I’m curious because the running myth is outbound links drain power.. is that true? [filtered from 28 💬🗨]
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Kazi Nabil Oen Many of us are aware that internal links are the secret weapon of many Search Engine Optimization pros (SEOs) and that they can help to supercharge organic rankings and visibility. However, we rarely see recommendations to optimize outbound links. Optimizing outbound links is a topic that the industry is split on; some believe they are an essential consideration, while others do not. The reality is that we should be paying attention to how we are linking out from our content and that there could be more to consider than we often do.
Rob Kafka » Kazi Nabil Oen the value comes from making your website a "resource" that is "helpful" vs. a one way cul-de-sac type road with no friends. 👍🏽💟2
Claire Bowden Outbound links are important from Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness (EAT) and user experience perspective. If your content links to a government body who can provide further information or resources, or to a study that was done, then that signals to both Google and the user that this content can be considered to be trustworthy and is also providing the user with more value and resources for a better overall experience. This is something the recent May core update appeared to favor. So yes, outbound links can take away some page authority away but you could end up ranking higher because you’ve shown the content is more likely to be reliable and adheres to the principles of EAT. 👍🏽4
Schieler Mew 👑 » Claire Bowden Outbound links do not take away PageRank. They never have and they never will. There is no documentation or study that has ever concluded this and it is a widespread SEO myth.👍🏽2 Claire Bowden » Schieler Mew Thanks for bringing to my attention. To clarify for the person who posted; If Google detects a pattern of unnatural, artificial, deceptive, or manipulative outbound links on your site then they may issue a penalty but this penalty only applies to those who are buying links or participating in link schemes in order to manipulate PageRank is a violation of Google's Webmaster Guidelines. 👍🏽💟2 Schieler Mew 👑 » Claire Bowden Thank you for addressing this – as this causes a lot of confusion in our industry! Your clarifying point is spot on and one of the main things Google factors to determine private blog networks (PBN)s! Very well worded and put
Kevin Kohlert Excessive outbound links can dilute the page; however, having one or two good quality ones that, for example, reference a study can actually help. I almost always include 1-2 contextually relevant high quality outbound links for pages I wish to rank and I have not had any issues at all. Look at Wikipedia lol. You can always nofollow certain links too like if you're using affiliate links or a list of "sources" in the footer.
Schieler Mew 👑 » Kevin Kohlert Google doesn’t pay attention to follow/no follow. If they want to attribute rank, their system does regardless of what you want. Remember it is just a suggestion. Rienzi Mosqueda » Kevin will delute the page is not true. And nofollow link will still pass that rank juice like it or not. » Kevin Kohlert Thanks for your replies. "Google doesn’t pay attention to follow/no follow." I disagree. Otherwise there wouldn't be a point to "nofollow" a link. It's true that Google may or may not ignore that directive; however, it's sending a signal to Google that you don't wish for them to "follow" that link. This is similar to a "noindex" tag. They may ignore it, but it's at least sending the signal. "will delute the page is not true. And nofollow link will still pass that rank juice like it or not." Excessive outbound links can negatively impact a page's rank period. https://backlinko.com/Google-ranking-factors – See #44 "44. Number of Outbound Links: Too many dofollow OBLs can “leak” PageRank, which can hurt that page’s rankings." (Backlinko, 2020, Google’s 200 Ranking Factors: The Complete List) BACKLINKO.COM Google’s 200 Ranking Factors: The Complete List (2020) Schieler Mew 👑 » Kevin Kohlert Trust me. Follow/no follow doesn’t matter. I obtain dozens of Wikipedia no follow backlinks monthly for clients and it pushes the needle a LOT. Google does what Google wants. It’s just a suggestion 🙂 👍🏽1 Kevin Kohlert I'm not saying "Nofollow" links don't matter – they do, especially from high quality sources such as Wikipedia but I don't agree that there's no difference between the two. With that said. I appreciate the lovely suggestion 😉 Schieler Mew 👑 » Kevin Kohlert – Do you mean on low authority and trust flow sites? Why would you want backlinks from those anyways, I wonder 🤔 Kevin Kohlert Well, we were originally talking about "outbound links" and if they impact the SEO of a page on your website. I was saying that having excessive outbound links on a page can negatively impact the SEO of that page; this sort of tailspinned into backlinking heh. Schieler Mew 👑 » Kevin Kohlert – Oh yes than absolutely 100% agree. More than 2-3 on a huge article is questionable. Maybe I was interpreting something that didn’t exist lol Kevin Kohlert Haha no worries, how do you go about obtaining Wikipedia backlinks? Schieler Mew 👑 » Kevin Kohlert – I’ve been a Wikipedia editor for about 4-5 years now I believe. I do 404 reclamation. Look for broken links in my clients niches and then use the way back machine to see where they use to go. I re-write the content in my clients voice on a blog page and then reclaim the 404. Then I sculpt the blog page to the money pages 👍🏽3 Mike Friedman » Kevin Kohlert whether you nofollow the links or not doesn’t make a bit of difference for that page’s rankings. Your rankings don’t bleed out through links. 👍🏽1
Rienzi Mosqueda I haven’t seen a page drop down coz of excessive outbound links. If the excessive outbound links are irrelevant or does not help your traffic, then that might affect your credibility. And authority has an indirect impact to SEO. What you should focus instead is optimizing internal links. Linking to unrelated pages, for example, from a page will hurt your overall performance.
Mike Friedman » Rienzi Mosqueda yep. Many Wikipedia pages would be screwed if excessive outbound links were an issue. Some have well over 200 of them. 👍🏽💖2
