Outbound Links

Links that refer to another external domain from your website are named outbound, external or Outbound Links.

An external link is considered a recommendation and shows the search engine that you trust the website you are referring to. These assumptions should be correct.

Links to any domains that are not related to the topic and are unprofessional can damage your website considerably. Outbound links are only allowed to target “good websites”.

A simple example is when you write an article about SEO because you get the reference for the article from the example.com website, you provide a link to the example.com website as a source of written information. This is called an outbound link.

This is the same as the opposite of backlinks, if your website’s backlink gets a link from another website, while your website’s outbound link provides a link to another website.

It means that you provide backlinks to other websites.

Things to Consider when Assigning Outgoing Links?

Outbound links should always serve as further information for the visitor and not as a reference that the important information can be found on another website.

The following points should be observed when assigning outgoing links:

  • They have a thematic reference and are helpful for the user.
  • Maximum of three outbound links per page.
  • Link only to trustworthy websites as the link acts as a recommendation
  • Mark advertising links and links to untrustworthy sites with nofollow
  • No keyword in the anchor text for outbound backlinks

Outbound Links – Good Or Bad For Website?

Opinions on the question of whether outgoing links are good or bad for a page’s ranking vary widely. Ultimately, it must always be considered what kind of links are involved and how well they fit the content of the page.

As a rule of thumb, it is usually seen that website operators should above all link to high-quality pages, which in turn are very “respected” by search engines, i.e. have a good ranking.

Anyone who works seriously in terms of content always thinks about the benefits for the user and does not overload his page with advertising links, usually has good cards in terms of SEO.

How Outbound Link is effective for Search Engine Optimization?

It is controversial how high the number of outgoing links can be without a website being interpreted as a simple collection of links.

Such a link network would in many cases be penalized by search engines with a poorer positioning.

Google examines the links of a complete domain and decides here, for example, whether links were merely sold, refer back and forth as an agreed link exchange between two pages, or whether there is a thematic fit between the pages.

The outgoing links themselves and their CTR (click rate) are not a factor for the ranking, according to Google, but they indirectly influence the added value of the page, which is central for Google.

Despite the lack of clarity regarding exact information, it is clear that the selection, structure, and number of links must remain within a framework in which they offer the visitor real added value.

A thematic fit should be a matter of course and references to untrustworthy sites should be avoided.

If you want to avoid the evaluation of links by search engines to be on the safe side, outgoing links can be marked with the Nofollow attribute.

Common sense, however, usually provides information about whether links are out of place or the number of links is absurd for the size of the article.