The worth of a link

1. 73

   WryLiltposted 14 years ago

   I know that "google love" is distributed in complicated ways, but how much better would a page that has only inwards backlinks (but no outward bound links) rank compared to one with maybe 15-20 outward links. Would the the difference be negligible?
   
   I've seen some people claim that "outward" links can actually either not effect or effect your site for the better, if the site linked to is an authority site.

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   1. 87

      Marisa Wrightposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      You've probably seen Darkside, Sunforged and Nelle Hoxie say they don't "give away" outgoing links in the main body of their Hubs or websites.
      
      Since I've always found those three Hubbers to give good advice, I follow that rule.
      
      However, you'll find plenty of places around the net which claim that Google likes to see outgoing links, so I try to include them somewhere that Google will see them but where they won't entice my reader.   On HP that's at the end below the comments, on my website it's on a "links" page and a "news" page.
      
      I don't think that's doing the reader out of anything - if they really want to know the source or find further information, they'll find the links. I'm just not shoving them under their noses.
      
      Remember no one really knows what Google wants, everyone's just guessing!  So it doesn't hurt to cover all bases just in case.

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2. 69

   lrohnerposted 14 years ago

   I don't think you'll find any one answer to this question. I believe in them because I believe in providing a quality experience for my readers. Am I worried about losing readers to those sites? No. Can it help my search engine rankings? I really don't know. Google has hundreds of pieces of criteria that it uses to determine rankings, and it's possible that outbound links are a small part of that--as long as they are relevant, point to authority sites and have the right anchor text. As a matter of fact, my 2nd best performing hub as 11 outbound links in it--all to different sites.
   
   I have heard that too many outbound links with the DoFollow attribute are not good. I think they can dilute PageRank or something like that? I'm sure Darkside or SunForged have a much better answer.
   
   Here's an article from ProBlogger that might be worth the read.

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3. 55

   Dame Scribeposted 14 years ago

   I agree with that Problogger article I try to use links that are related and helpful for the reader. I think links that are internal is good for HP and other authors, overall, and external links can also be useful but will depend upon on the reasons of the author. To what purpose is this link to serve?

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4. 77

   thisisoliposted 14 years ago

   Outgoing links have an effect on your page rank.
   
   Too many outgoing links can also get your site classed as spam, along with things like duplicate content. That will of course require a large amount of outgoing backlinks though.
   
   You can reduce problems with things such as these by adding no-follow tags when you don't want to pass PR juice.

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