It could be argued that even today there are still those in the search engine optimisation community that are far too preoccupied with PageRank. This preoccupation is then reflected in the way that people who might want to invest in SEO services interpret the industry. While PageRank is undoubtedly significant for SEO, it is important not to inflate its value, as this can often degrade other parts of an SEO strategy that could potentially yield more value. Perhaps one of these techniques that is perhaps sacrificed at the behest of PageRank is outbound linking.
In a culture that is possibly over-obsessed with the role of PageRank, the idea of sacrificing the PR you have worked so hard to consolidate internally to an outside source or even competitor, seems like madness. It\’s like saving your pocket money up for months only to give it to your big brother. But what if your brother appreciates the gesture so much that he starts sharing his sweets with you? And because he\’s older he has more. Everyone\’s a winner! Excuse the painfully inadequate metaphor, but outbound linking can have big benefits, here are some of the main ones.
Perhaps one of the most basic roles that outbound links play is as a metric that the search engines use to determine the quality of a website. The search engines might interpret outbound links as contributor to a better user experience, you are providing them with links to additional content that might improve their chances of satisfying the intent that caused them to conduct the search originally. Also, the appearance of additional links that aren\’t pointed to internal pages may increase the level of user activity on a webpage, and this again is going to indicate to the search engines that a website is of high quality.
Outbound links will not only appeal to the search engines, but also to the users themselves, although, this is where intelligent selection of your outbound links is important. For example, imagine a website where visitors can conduct academic research; a conversion for this site might be classed as a subscription to a weekly newsletter. A user visiting might find a piece of content that is very informative and well written, it also uses outbound links to point to other sources of information that are relevant and reliable to validate the claims made in the article itself. This appearance of outbound links may well contribute to the reader\’s decision to subscribe to the newsletter as it adds credibility. A critical essay would be considered invalid without any references or footnotes to other texts, and so will an informational webpage. The same principles apply for any sites offering informative material, even if it is on a product or service offered. Depending on the target audience for that material, the inclusion of outbound links could significantly improve its SEO value.
In this benefit to the user is the inherent danger that can be greatly damaging to a search engine optimisation campaign. It is the responsibility of the person creating the content to ensure the links point to reputable sources. If, for example, the majority of outbound links point to spam sites or Wikipedia entries, then the content may well appear cheapened to the user. Not only will this cause a page to lose PageRank (if the links aren\’t nofollowed), but it may also cause a significant drop in traffic and user activity on a page.
Perhaps the other SEO value of outbound links is that they can generate inbound links. Here\’s the scenario. One website is for a company the sells power tools, they write a blog about one of the drills they sell and in that blog they link to another website that specialises in DIY tips and advice. This will show to the search engines that the website is producing good quality content, it will show the user the company have taken time to research the article, and the DIY site linked to will notice the link in their analytics report. As a result they may well to create a return link on one of their pages, and therefore an increase in relevant traffic could be expected. The same principle can be applied to a range of industries, and the potential opportunity for increased levels of relevant traffic and improved conversion rates are readily available.
Again, there is a risk in this strategy that is worth mentioning, but it is fairly obvious. You would always want to be linking to things that could boost the quality of the content of your site without giving your competitors a chance to steal any of your potential conversions. This risk can be abated by doing research into where your links point to, and weighing up the potential between driving in relevant traffic and possibly losing dentists to competitors.
Outbound links, used intelligently, do have a place in an SEO strategy. It is down to the content creator, or SEO agency doing the optimisation work to ensure the links point to valuable and relevant content in order to maximise this potential.
This blog was written over 6 months ago and Internet Marketing and SEO is an always changing industry which means the information within this blog may be out of date. Use caution when using any methods or suggestions within it.
