Outgoing links in SEO

Recently I have had a few clients ask me if outgoing links on their site is a good idea, or whether they should remove these outgoing links to increase the power of the page in the search engines.

The answer is as with most things in SEO, outgoing links are a good thing in moderation.

Placing some outbound links on your site will actually gain you more natural link reciprocation. The perception is that if you willing to share your visitors with other sites, other sites will be more willing to share their visitors with you. Using this method you can build up strong relationships with other related sites and help generate targeted traffic, hence sales for each other.

You do need to however pick your outbound links carefully and ensure they have related content to your site. This content although not on your site can aid you efforts to become a definitive resource of information on a chosen topic, which in turn will lead to more referrals to your website. This can lead to offers of affiliate relationships with larger companies, which can only aid your optimisation efforts. It is often a good idea to refer your users to other related sites once they have purchased an item off your site. This leads to a memorable user experience, which helps in retaining visitors.

A mistake many sites make is trying to retain all its visitors to their site, remember that your site will not be the only source of information on the required product or service.
There will be many other sites offering the same or similar product or service which users will eventually discover. Therefore the more information you can provide, including the use of external links, the more likely users are to return to your site as they see your site as a good resource location.

In conclusion, outgoing links can actually aid your optimisation process rather than damaging it. Be careful who you link to and do your research thoroughly. Having a few outgoing links will not harm your ranking efforts but don’t overdo it!

Paul
SEO Programmer

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