by The Computing Australia Group | Essential Facts About
Outbound Links
Outbound links are one of the most underused SEO tactics. Why should I link out to somebody else’s website and give them a valuable inbound link, right? Well, outbound links play a role in gaining authenticity for your own site too. How? Do they matter for SEO? How can you use them for your website? Read on to learn all you should know about outbound links in SEO.
What are outbound links?
Do outbound links matter for SEO?
Reasons to include outbound links in your website
What are outbound links?
- They improve your authority
Imagine you’re publishing a thesis. While creating the written report, you’ll list the references you used to craft your thesis. The validity and authority of these references will greatly impact how the review board perceives your thesis. The same principle can be applied here. When you link to high-quality sources, your content appears more authoritative. Linking to well-known, high-ranking sites will convey to the search engine and the user that your website content is well-researched. This will improve the authority of your website.
- They build trust in your content
While outbound links are generally not considered as a ranking factor, they considerably improve the user experience. By linking to valuable resources, you will be able to appear knowledgeable. The users will then trust your website more. When the user experience is enhanced, the search engine will recognise your site as worthy of attention. Your site will then be recommended to more users.
- They help create relationships with similar website owners
Building sustainable relationships is an important aspect of marketing. Not only will you be able to improve the quality of your own website, but you will also be able to reach more consumers through cross-promoting. You’ll thus be able to gain more organic traffic and build your brand up.
When should you use outbound links in your content?
- When you need to reference the source of an information
- When you need to back up your claim
- To offer more examples
- Credit the original creator
- The page should be relevant to your topic.
- The language used must be understandable and straightforward with minimum errors.
- The author must be credible.
- The content should not be outdated.
- The page should not be more than three years old unless it’s evergreen content
- Try not to link material behind a paywall.
Jargon Buster
Off-page SEO: Actions taken away from your website to improve the rankings are called off-page SEO.
SEO: Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) refers to the group of techniques and technology used to improve the ranking of your website in SERPs.
Evergreen content: Content that does not lose its relevancy within a time frame is called evergreen content.
YMYL site: Your Money Your Life sites refer to sites that can affect people’s wealth, health, financial stability or happiness. News and current sites, financial services, e-commerce, health related sites are few examples.
