Inserting good outbound links is a boon for blogs that publish great posts. But Google's recent attention to quality content and the related management of user-generated content make a post on the topic outgoing links urgent.
What KissAnime would like to say is that the use of outbound links goes hand in hand with the natural citation of sources and the need for content expansion, as well as a dose of common sense. Then just follow these 6 rules and play it safe.
The topics of the post
· What is an outbound link on the website?
· Always insert relevant links
· The authority of the site is decisive
· Outgoing links are uninterested
· Outbound links and SEO: what relationship
· How many outbound links on a page
· Care for outbound link code
· Nofollow links: what are they and do they use?
· How to add outbound links
· What is an outbound link on the website?
Here's a definition: the outbound link is a link that leads to another source. A different site than yours that inserts it.
When you link to another resource you are taking the reader to a different shore and therefore you have to choose your actions carefully.
Many suggest limiting the use of external links, but it is certainly true that they can be important resources.
Indeed, they are essential to complete the content and make it attractive. But you have to respect some rules of common sense, SEO, and usability. Where to start this process? Let's find out together.
Always insert relevant links
Basic rule? The linked resource must be relevant to the content. For example: if in a post you talk about boiled potatoes, insert a link to a page that explains what potatoes are and not to the one that describes the asparagus harvest.
If you want to make sure that outbound links are useful to your content and, above all, well integrated into the general architecture of on-page SEO optimization, make sure that the relevant rule is at the center of your editorial attention.
The authority of the site is decisive
Just like good journalists do, you have to verify the sources. That is, you have to make sure that the linked site is authoritative and reliable. It doesn't have to be a smack. So, alongside the concept of relevance, the authority of the source you are linking to.
Do you want to evaluate the authority of a website in a scientific way? There are the guidelines of the quality raters that give clear indications regarding this topic.
Outgoing links are uninterested
You hope that every outbound link is paid an inbound one, but that's not always the case. It is not about selfishness but about the real necessity and relevance of the contents.
Then webmasters know that the validity of link exchange is less than a one-way link. So, be disinterested in this mechanism. Link to useful content and don't expect something in return but don't ask either.
Outbound links and SEO: what relationship
It is often said that outbound links can help rank a page by considering itself as a ranking factor. I don't really see it as an essential condition that there must be an outbound link in a resource.
Here are the words of John Mueller in the video tutorial: "linking to other websites is a great way to provide value to your users, oftentimes links help users to find out more to check out your sources and to better understand how your content is relevant".
That is, links to other websites are a great way to provide value to your users, they usually help them understand your content. What does it mean in summary? Think about people, not SEO
The link to external resources should be a way to help the user. An official Google voice like Danny Sullivan, for example, stressed the importance of citing sources in newspaper articles for better printing.
Let's see the question from the user's point of view: can having a contextualized, quality link, useful for deepening and verifying, help? Well, that makes the content more and more directed towards quality.
"In the same way that Google trusts sites less when they link to spammy sites or bad neighborhoods, parts of our system encourage links to good sites."
This means that for SEO it can be useful to have quality sources to mention, but at the same time, you must avoid linking spam sites, of low quality, perhaps penalized. Do a Google search, see where the page you want to mention is positioned: if it is among the first positions in the SERP it is already a good sign.
How many outbound links on a page
There is no clear-cut answer to those who ask for the maximum number of outbound links on pages. But the excess of outbound links can turn Google's attention to the good faith of the resource and can distract the reader of the text.
If the links are not relevant or take them to non-relevant or credible resources, the risks increase. So use common sense and don't go overboard with unnecessary links. The same is true, in any case, for managing internal links on WordPress.
Care for outbound link code
The HTML rules for correct insertion of links do not apply only to incoming ones but also to outgoing ones: always use a semantic anchor text, meaningful title if needed and target = _blank if you want to open the link in another window.
Also make sure that the outbound links are working fine, that there are no broken links - not the best from a usability point of view. To do this you can use a free tool like Xenu's Link Sleuth or Screaming Frog. However, I also use Broken Link Checker, a WordPress plugin to find broken links.
Nofollow links: what are they and do they use?
You can't forget the rel = ”nofollow”, which is the attribute that Google uses to remove SEO value from links. If you want to suggest a link with a commercial link or whose authoritativeness you cannot verify - in summary, you do not want to value the source - you can use the rel = ”nofollow”. But that's not all. Evolution of nofollow: UGC and sponsored
There are two attributes that serve to give a specific value to outbound hyperlinks. To qualify your outbound links on Google you can also use the rel = "sponsored" dedicated to advertising links or paid content, or there are rel = "UGC" for user-generated content.
How to add outbound links
The results of correct use of outbound links are clear and, apart from any inbound links returned which are always handy, readers will appreciate your ability to explore topics with the right link at the right time. How do you move in this field? How do you insert outgoing links on the site?