Get the best out of Outbound Linking

[Relevancy]

There is more and more discussion about outbound linking being an important part of link popularity and therefore rankings. What are the proper ways to outbound link?

1: I feel you need to link out to government resources if they apply. Does this mean you out link all over your site? No.. you can use a resources(links) page to do this and still get credit.

2: Link to related charities or .orgs within the text and main parts of your pages. Since the engines are starting to know what is what on a page, you have to figure if outbound linking is helping then putting non-competitive links within the body text will help as well.

Any other thoughts?

Just MO. Does the link out benefit your visitor. If so do it. If not don't. Don't worry about SE benefits in regard to links. That will work itself out in time. Keep in mind what is true today may not be true tomorrow with any SE. Any thing you do for the SEs may help today, but next week may bite you in the but.

Bottom line from this old MO hillbilly. Whatever you do, do it for the visitor. SEs usually like that.

[Relevancy]

You are exactly right Connie. I am talking about linking out to resources, charities, etc. My name is "Relevancy", everything I do is for the visitor and to make a site relevant. Just becasue everything I do for the visitor the SEs like is just a bonus.

[Grumpus]

A links page that links out has less impact on your various pages that you are trying to rank than linking from the pages themselves - for a few reasons.

1.) There are lots of links on a links page. Just as you get more PR by being linked to from a page with few links on it, the benefit you get from linking out gets dilluted.

2.) It's "removed" from the pages you are trying to get ranked. Just as an inbound link to your homepage will help other pages on your site, it won't help a specific page directly - the PR goes to the homepage and then the homepage (which links to the page you're trying to rank) passes on a portion of that new PR to the next pages.

3.) Most importantly... A links page will likely have links on it relating to the topics covered by your entire site. The real power of outbound links is independant verification of what a page is about. You can lie in your copy, but if you link out to another page, you're saying, "This is what my page is about." If that page you link to also happens to appear in the same batch of SERPs that your page shows up in, the SE knows that that is actually what your page is talking about.

The real way to getting the best out of your outbound links is as follows:

1.) Link specifics to specifics. As I mentioned in 3, above, your outbound links have to do with theming, and not PR. Any page you're trying to rank has a "topic". If you have a page dealing with Auto Insurance, don't just link to the State DMV (Department of Motor Vehicles), but rather, link directly to the page on the DMV site that deals with Insurance regulations. (This is useful for users, as well).

2.) An outbound link helps the page, and eventually, the whole site, but it's most profound and immediate impact is on the text that's immediately around that link - especially if its part of the same page element. So, where possible, link out in context and don't just provide a list of links - make sure there's bare text around the link that talks about the same things that the page you're linking to talks about (and, hopefully, that's also talking about the term you're trying to rank). Something like this:

... Once you've purchased your new vehicle, you'll need to make sure you have at least the minimum insuarance coverage as required by the state. (See the Wyoming Motor Vehicle Dept. Insurance Requirements page).

If you have financed your new automobile, the bank might have additional requirements....

You could also have a list of "related documents" at the bottom of each page you're trying to rank that has one or two links to places, but you should include at least a descriptive sentence or two with each one.

This section is why Blogs and Directories tend to rank so well in Google (not as much as they did a year ago, but they still tend to do well). Links are contextual in a blog and in directories, there's a description for each link right there with it. It's also why those annoying search scraper results rank so well - you know, those sites that generate hundreds of pages that show search results for a specific term along with a link to their own page that deals with the subject. Not only do those scraped results have text near them, but it has the EXACT text that Google finds most relevant to the term - and the links go to what Google also thinks are the most relevant sites to those terms. (Please do not take this as an invitation to make more of those annoying sites - I'm just saying why they work, but I'm sick of sifting through those to get to real pages).

3.) Government and Non-Profit sites are nice to link to, but that needn't be your focus, really. Any page that deals with the specific topic that you're dealing with will be good - even if it's not ranking very well itself. Your link will help that page rank and so long as it eventually gets up in the top 100 or whatever the number is, the cross pollination benefits will kick in. In the end, the linking "from" page tends to almost always rank higher than the linking "to" page, so you don't really have to worry about that site suddenly outranking you. The only real exception to this is when you link to a page that does a better job of outbound linking (or a better job at some other key element to SEO).

Hope that helps a bit.

G.

[Nacho]

I think that the first thing you have to ask yourself is, why should I link to another source?

A) Are you just linking out for the purpose of gaining ranking.

B) Do you really want that user to go to that outside source because it is highly valuable.

Really, be honest when you answer this (to yourself).

[Nacho]

The "links page" . . . tests show that links from most of such "links pages" are devalued on most search engines.

True outbound links come from the content's source, and the seach engines have known that a looooooong time ago.

[I, Brian]

Originally Posted by Nacho

The "links page" . . . tests show that links from most of such "links pages" are devalued on most search engines.

Devalued in what way? Reference Hilltop, and you'll see that in such a system votes across Expert Documents are important for ranking purposes. So it's not the individual page that matters, as much as the community of pages.

So you don't necessarily need to think about just ranking one page, or one site - you can think in wider terms of linking communities.

Also, in single page terms, the simplest benefit of linking out is that the anchor text is it's potential as a ranking factor on equivalent lines of using <strong> tags - links together present a highlighted set of keywords.

[Relevancy]

Thanks Grumpus, this post that i started was created for you. I have been reading up on the things you have been posting here and on other sites.

I needed some clarification on my own theories. I have always been linking out on relevant pages within the text to relevant sources on other sites. And not just their home pages, but to the exact topic pages. But I have been worried that I am just making the rich richer (giving the orgs and govs even better rankings). So I have been trying to find ways to link out within the text to relevant sources while not bumping up the already high sites. What you are telling me is that I have to link to the sources that rank to rank myself (to help my rankings, I know this is not all that matters).. correct? Because if they are not in the top 100, top 1000 whatever it is, it will not help? Is it better to link to the sources that are in the top 75 to be safe?

Grumpus do you sift through the results pages for a certain keyword to find a lower ranking url that could be used for a resource link on one of your pages?

Do you see what I am saying or am I rambling? I tend to do that.

[Relevancy]

Nacho wrote:

The "links page" . . . tests show that links from most of such "links pages" are devalued on most search engines.

Oh and I was not saying anything about a links page the way you think of a links page. I meant my resource page. Which is a links page but for actual resources that you think your visitors would benefit from. Not a place to put your link partnerships. And I always have enough text to supplement the links. You don’t make it look like a links page. Never name the file "links.html" or use that verbiage.

[Grumpus]

Grumpus do you sift through the results pages for a certain keyword to find a lower ranking url that could be used for a resource link on one of your pages?

I don't necessarily look for lower ranking pages. Nor do I worry too much about it. In very simple and general terms, lower rankings pages tend to be less likely be to "authorities" and linking to authority sites is a part of the key.

What I tend to do is type in the search term that I'm expecting to find my page on (chances are, it's not there, yet, because I haven't finished making the page or it's very brand spanking new...) I then go through the results and look for sites that aren't direct competitors (i.e. a hotel site isn't going to link to another hotel site, but they might link to a travel agency) and which offer something that my page doesn't offer.

So, for example, if I'm promoting a new DVD on my movie site, I'll do a nice writeup on it, and then make a section in there for external reviews. I'll talk about what Ebert said about the movie, and then link to his review at the Sun Times. It doesn't matter if the sun times review comes up ahead of me because it's not selling the movie, so someone looking to buy the movie will have to go back to their search results and come to my site (hopefully) right below it, anyway.

G.

[Relevancy]

Then how many outside resources do you try to put on a specific page? Does it always have to be in the body text? Can it be within the body section but maybe in a related information section?

For example all the content is in the middle and then below it or maybe in the middle (depends how it all looks and feels) you have a Related Information: section with bulleted links with descriptions. Would that still have the same effect?

[Grumpus]

Yeah - that would work, so long as you have relevant text around the links.

G.

[Relevancy]

Thanks G, but what about how many sources do you link out to?

[Grumpus]

As many good relevant sources as I find.

G.