Most SEO’s will stress the importance off having other relevant websites in your industry link to you. This obviously would satisfy Google’s authority fetish and consequently "HELP YOU RANK WELL!"
But inbound links from authority websites are sometimes hard to get, especially if you are a new player in your industry.So, can linking to these websites from yours (outbound links) increase your ranking?Lets find out.
What does outbound linking do for you?
When you link to another site, you are essentially casting a "vote" for it.So ok, your helping them?Yes fair enough, BUT if you consider the process from a Google crawler’s point of view then you will see the benefit
"Hi I’m your local Google Crawler"
And I have just jumped on to your website and noticed that you have outbound links to well-known, authority websites in your industry, This fact makes it easier for me to know where you fit in and therefore rank you accordingly.
As an example, if you were to have a Video Games e-store it’s logical to assume that Google consider you more likely to be related to video games if you linked to authority sites such as GameSpy and IGN.com.
BUT WAIT
This is by NO means the magic bullet of SEO. So when considering outbound linking there are a few factors you must know.
- You must keep the links relevant (never link to an unscrupulous source!)
- Be selective with who you link to (a couple of relevant AUTHORITY websites with a high page rank is advised).
- Use appropriate keywords in anchor text link (label the "hyperlink" in other words).
- Have a separate page for your links as the outbound’s will dilute your page rank for that page.(A "links" or "related materials" page is ideal "as you wouldn’t care if it didn’t get indexed by Google)
Please use this technique sparingly. I am not encouraging you to turn your website into a link-farm!But none the less, a few relevant outbound links make sense from an SEO perspective and will also help you build some relationships with other websites in your industry!
