What You Should Know About Outbound Links

What You Should Know 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?

Let’s start off with the most important question- what is an outbound link? There are two types of links – internal and external links. When you link the different pages of your website to each other, it’s called internal linking. When a page is linked to another website, it’s called external linking. External links are of two types – inbound links and outbound links. Inbound links or backlinks are links that point to your website from another website. On the other hand, outbound links point to another website from your site. Each outbound link from your site will be an inbound link for the other site and vice-versa.

Do outbound links matter for SEO?

Links are crucial in SEO. Inbound links act as a token of legitimacy and can improve a site ranking in SERPs. On the other hand, outbound links show your clients that you have sourced your content from trustworthy resources, especially for a YMYL site. They help your consumers discover more helpful content and show that you are willing to go the extra mile to give your customers useful resources. Outbound links may not matter for your site’s SEO directly, but they do help improve your site’s authority, and therefore traffic.

Reasons to include outbound links in your website

There are three main reasons to include outbound links in your website content. They are:

• 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 recognize 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?

The best practices for any marketing technique varies from business to business, industry to industry. However, their main function remains the same-giving your customers sources for more related information. Usually, outbound links are used in the following scenarios:

• 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

When you’re linking a page, keep these tips in mind

• 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.

In a nutshell, outbound links can be beneficial for your website when used properly. They add value to your website and help in achieving higher rankings. They also help build a trustful relationship with your customers and similar creators. Now that you know what are outbound links and how they help your site, are you ready to update your link building and SEO strategy? If you are, then don’t hesitate to contact us! Let us help you achieve your goals! The Computing Australia Group has served Perth businesses for over two decades with our expert team and state-of-the-art creative services.

Jargon Busters

SEO: Search Engine Optimization (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.