Are outbound links on your website good for SEO?

Following a recent comment from John Mueller of Google, an opinion and optic was revealed about the use of outbound links on a website and the benefits or drawbacks for SEO. Outbound links are links on your website that point to an external source, calling out to sources other than your own website or network. That's what we want to cover in this blog post!

Quotes from John Mueller: "No one at Google counts the links or the words in your blog posts, and even if they did, I would still recommend writing for your audience. I don't know your audience, but I haven't met anyone who counts the words before they read a piece of content.

"I think that's something that people used to do, way back in the beginning, where they would create a spammy website and put a link to Wikipedia and CNN at the bottom and then hope that the search engines would see that and say, 'Oh, this must be a legitimate website.





But... like I said... people did that in the beginning, and it was a really traditional spam technique, almost. And I don't know if it ever really worked. So from that standpoint, I would say, no, it doesn't make sense."

Types of links that occur on a website

There are different types of links that can occur on a website, each with their own role and impact on user experience and SEO: Internal links: These are links that point to other pages within the same website hosting. They help users navigate through the website and contribute to better indexing by search engines.

Relevant posts and pages can be linked to each other to emphasize the relationship between the content. Outbound links: As mentioned above, these are links that point to external websites.

Although they leave your own website, they can still add value by providing additional context or resources that are relevant to the content. Inbound links: These are links that lead to your website from other websites.

They are often seen as an indication of the relevance and authority of your website and can have a direct impact on your search engine ranking. Affiliate links: These are outbound links set up specifically for affiliate marketing. They lead to products or services that you promote in exchange for a commission.

Although they are commercial in nature, they can still add value to your audience if used correctly. No-follow links: These are links that instruct search engines not to follow or pass value to the linked page. They are often used for paid links or in situations where the website owner does not want to take responsibility for the content of the linked page.

Outbound links offer no direct benefit for SEO

For a long time, outbound links were thought to have a direct impact on a website's search engine optimization.

While this may have seemed true in the past, it's important to understand that outbound links in and of themselves do not directly improve your search engine rankings. As John Mueller of Google pointed out, adding outbound links is not considered a ranking factor by search engines like Google. In the past, some websites used outbound links to signal "legitimacy" to the search engines, but this was often a tactic associated with spam.

Today, the search engines are much more sophisticated and look at the overall relevance and quality of a website, not just the number or presence of outbound links. Therefore, the focus should not be on adding outbound links to improve your search engine optimization, but rather on making your content more valuable and trustworthy to your audience. This can contribute to better user engagement and trust in the long run, which in turn can indirectly benefit your search engine optimization.

Indirect benefits of outbound links

Although outbound links do not provide direct search engine optimization benefits, they are very valuable to the user experience and overall credibility of your content for several reasons. First, outbound links contribute to the value your readers derive from an article. When you link to external sources, you offer your readers the opportunity to learn more about specific topics, concepts or statistics mentioned in your article.

Not only does this make your content more informative, but it also shows that you as the author have done thorough research and are willing to provide your audience with access to more valuable sources of information. In addition, outbound links can support the conclusions you draw in an article. By linking to authoritative external sources, you give your readers the opportunity to research the basis for your conclusions themselves. This strengthens the credibility of your article and builds trust between you and your audience.

Readers are more likely to like your content if they see that your claims and arguments are well-founded. Outbound links also play an important role in validating citations of studies and statements made by others that are mentioned in the article. If you refer to a study or expert quote, a link to the original source allows your readers to see the context and details for themselves.

This prevents misunderstandings and ensures that the information you share is transparent and verifiable. Finally, outbound links are good practice for the internet ecosystem as a whole. By linking to other websites, you contribute to a network of knowledge sharing and collaboration.

This not only helps to make the information on the internet more accessible, but also promotes a culture of openness and connection between different sources and authors. SourceSearchEngineJournal