Linking out to authority sites - Good for SEO?

[Oscar1]

I believe that the consensus is that having a lot of outgoing links to "bad neighborhoods" can hurt the amount of trust Google has in one's site. However, has the opposite been proven, i.e. that having outgoing links to authority sites within the same genre could actually help your Google rankings?

I own a relatively newly started site about sports info with a PR5 and about 4,000 indexed pages. So far I don't have a single outgoing link on the site. I'm considering adding a few dozen (or possibly more) outgoing links to the official homepages of some of the biggest sports teams. Will this increase the amount of trust Google has in my site, or will it have negative consequences like diluted PageRank and so on? Or won't it make any difference at all from a SEO point of view?

Please note that I'm not talking about link exchanges here, as I'm pretty much ruling out that for example Manchester United's official homepage would give me a reciprocal link. What I'm considering, is giving out one-way links "for free" to some selected, supreme authority sites within my genre.

Do you think these outgoing links in themselves will make any difference (for better or worse) when it comes to the way Google sees my site?

Thanks,
Oscar

[SEOScotland]

I believe a lot of people state linking out to authority sites improves the trust Google puts in your site. I don't have "proof" though...but I do it.

[beu]

If it is good for users it is also good for search engines.

[JayAre]

I believe it can help you, but there is still little agreement on whether it really makes a difference.

Take a look at this SEOmoz article about Google Search Engine Ranking Factors (and while you're at it, also check the other factors, very interesting to hear what a lot of well known SEO-specialists have to say...)

[Tom Summer]

Originally Posted by Oscar1

Do you think these outgoing links in themselves will make any difference (for better or worse) when it comes to the way Google sees my site?

If there are authority sites, I think Google will say nothing (better or worse), but did you asked these websites if they agree to put their links in your website? Because, as I know, if you have a link from a website with no PR or from a "bad" website (I'm not talking about yours, but in generally), Google can penalize you.

[cryptblade]

Linking OUT doesn't help you with SEO. Not sure why people still think that. We are talking about search engines here -not some magic potion of "quantitativeness"

Search engines aren't going to "magically" think AH-HA - that there's a good link, yeehaw! If it was that easy, guess what, everyone wouldve done that by now. A link to CNN, a link to Searchenginewatch.com, badabing, badaboom.

What helps is INBOUND LINKS.

The ONLY time outbound links are useful is if they are useful to your USERS - with no regard to SEO. Otherwise, don't even bother thinking along this route.

There's only onpage optimization and INBOUND LINKS when it comes to SEO (which is why people talk about link building, link baiting, and content is king)

[netidme]

I think your outbound links have no affect on the serps. I fell it's inbound (& internal linking) that count.

[JohnW]

In addition to Authority Score (Google calls this PageRank) many people feel that Google also employs a Hub Score. A hub score is calculated based on who (or is it whom?) you link to.

I think it is safe to say that, in part, Google gauges the trustworthiness of a site by the sites it links to. We know for sure that links to crummy sites can hurt you, so why not expect some credit for good linking? IMO a few anchor-rich on-topic links to relevant authority sites can help you. This practice can also help Google and some other search engines understand what “community” your site belongs in. I recommend this practice, particularly for new sites. In addition to Google, if you want to rank at Ask/Teoma it is probably even more important.

[netidme]

Originally Posted by JohnW

We know for sure that links to crummy sites can hurt you, so why not expect some credit for good linking? This practice can also help Google and some other search engines understand what “community” your site belongs in.

Thanks John, I hadn't really thought of outbound links in that respect, but the way you put it, it does make sense.

[Oscar1]

Originally Posted by JohnW

In addition to Authority Score (Google calls this PageRank) many people feel that Google also employs a Hub Score. A hub score is calculated based on who (or is it whom?) you link to.

Thanks JohnW, I had the same suspicion myself. I figured that if nothing else, it could at least help Google decide the genre/theme of my site more easily.

/Oscar

[BuckfastMonk]

It certianly helps place you in a relevant topical hub as JohnW has said.

[ht18]

Saying that inbound links are important and outbound are not is illogical. If there are no outbound links, there would be no inbound ones. So an "intelligent" algorithm must take it into account. Just ranting

[JohnW]

>If there are no outbound links, there would be no inbound ones.

I don't see how that's right. Inbound and outbound links should not be related to each other.

[mcanerin]

If there are no outbound links, there would be no inbound ones.

From a sites viewpoint, that doesn't make sense - tons of sites don't link out because they have misguided owners who either don't want to "leak" PR or send visitors away to competitors.

But if you were thinking of the internet as a whole, then ok, you'd need an outbound link in order for an inbound to exist.

I'll back John up on this one. It's not about "hey! I'll link to CNN and then my rankings will go up!", it's about joining a community.

If you show, through the links to and from your site, that you are a contributing member of a community, then that appears to count.

My personal theory on this is Industry or "theme". I say "theme" with a great deal of caution because I really don't like the term or the miriad number of misuses and amounts of misinformation around it. Suffice to say my personal definition probably isn't the same as many other peoples, which is why I look at other SEO's funny when they mention the term. The traditional concept of "themes" in SEO has been pretty much debunked, so now we are dealing with non-traditional definitions, and I really don't want to get into a battle of the definitions.

I'll use industry instead, which doesn't have the same baggage. There is evidence that Google assigns an industry (or community) to sites, based not on their content, but on their inbound links. Just take a look at the "Similar Sites" search for an example of this kind of thinking. We also know that Google can apply specific filters or penalties to certain industries or communities (ie Real estate, Gambling, etc). Does belonging help your rankings? Perhaps indirectly, based on a hightened trust that you are "on topic" and considered to be on-topic by the community that should know.

Result of this? That it's important to get on-topic links (ok, we know this). Whether that means you need to *give* on-topic links is less clear, but I think it may and I know I do and as a result it makes both my website and the web as a whole better for it

This also means that linking to "authority sites" in general would not help you, and may even harm you. But linking out to authority sites in your community would probably would show an intent to be a member of that community.

Ian