When criteria do you use for external linking?
-
When linking out to external sources what criteria do you use? Also, do you ever add the URL in plain text instead to conserve link juice?
-
I link out to other sources frequently too - I work on this principle - will linking to another site enrich this information for the person reading it. Linking to others sites when appropriate is only natural for building a great online resource, which I think is what we all want, that is why we spend time creating great content and marketing our sites online, working on optimization strategies etc. Whether you are selling products, services or blogging creating a site that is a rich resource with great content should always be your aim as this will lead to increases in all aspects, so don't be afraid to add links to other sites if you think it would help the visitor to your site - a website with a link profile that does this looks the most natural..
-
I link out a lot. Every page that I link to is better than my own site in some way. I don't worry about linking out and have zero hesitation to linking to six, eight, ten great sources of info on a single page.
-
External linking is fine and often times good. If you think about it, how natural is just solely having you link to your own content? Not so natural. Link to good sources and good sources will link to you.
Now the key is to not go crazy and link to multiple sites in a single page without giving yourself any love.
If they are blog posts, I think it is good to link out. Now if it was a product page on an online store, not so much.
-
I am pretty picky about linking out to other websites and rarely have an external link more than once per page unless it makes complete sense to have the multiple external links on that one page. That said, it does depend on the site and the page. If it is a blog, I'm more generous with external links. Still though, with any external links I make sure it is a site I'm willing to link to (good authority, good fit for users, etc.).
Given that I'm only linking out to trustworthy sites, I usually don't add in a rel nofollow. On the few occasions I've had to link to a site that is questionable, I'll always nofollow that link.
On your question of the <a>tag...when I do link out, I do always put it in a regular link just so that I don't make the website harder to use. I've tried the plain text route before and didn't see any huge SEO impacts but did see a huge negative usability impact.</a>
<a></a>
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Can you use Screaming Frog to find all instances of relative or absolute linking?
My client wants to pull every instance of an absolute URL on their site so that they can update them for an upcoming migration to HTTPS (the majority of the site uses relative linking). Is there a way to use the extraction tool in Screaming Frog to crawl one page at a time and extract every occurrence of _href="http://" _? I have gone back and forth between using an x-path extractor as well as a regex and have had no luck with either. Ex. X-path: //*[starts-with(@href, “http://”)][1] Ex. Regex: href=\”//
Technical SEO | | Merkle-Impaqt0 -
Sitemap links
Hi, I´m running a sitemap using pro-sitemaps and I find several pages that shouldn´t be listed. How do I find how are these pages being generated? Can´t find the links the robot is following to get to those pages..
Technical SEO | | ceci27100 -
Do I need a link to my sitemap?
I have a very large sitemap. I submit it to both Google and Bing, but do I need a link to it? If someone went there it would probably lock their browser. Is there any danger of not having a link if I submit it to Google and Bing?
Technical SEO | | EcommerceSite0 -
Google Links
I am assuming that the list presented by Google Webmaster tools (TRAFFIC | Links To Your Site) is the one that will actually be used by Google for indexing ? There seem to be quite a few links that there that should not be there. ie Assumed NOFOLLOW links. Am I working under an incorrect assumption that all links in webmaster tools are actually followed ?
Technical SEO | | blinkybill0 -
Automatic redirect to external urls
Hi all, I'm developing a dynamic qr code service.. The service works in the following way: You create an account with an associated QR CODE pointing to a url like:
Technical SEO | | raulo79
- http://domain.me/username The user can change the target of this url.. he can:
- point to an external url ( his website for example)
- point to a vCard download page
- a mobile ready webpage ( no redirection in this case)... Visiting http://domain.me/username my company logo is displayed and we redirect the visitor with a: header("Refresh: 5;URL=http://userdomain.tld"); Google is indexing many user's URLs, this is good for those users pointing to the mobile ready webpage, in this case there is no redirection, but Google is indexing many urls that redirect to an external url and I don't know how to avoid this.. I can't do an header('Location: http://www.example.com/'); because I need to display our logo after redirection.. how can I do google friendly? Sorry for my english, I hope you can undestand the problem. Best regards.
Mauro.0 -
Inter-link Optimization for Pages
Hi Guys, How much interlinking is okay for between pages? Can i start link my internal pages like Wikipedia does? 20,30 interlink per page? OR is it all depends on Page Authority? Can i go inter-link crazy on 1 year old legitimate site? Big Thanks?
Technical SEO | | DigitalJungle0 -
Link Building Advice
Hi Everyone, I have just joined the community and am looking for some help regards Offsite SEO and Link Building. I have done some basic SEO on my website 'Marketing Quotes' Added to web directories (although I am told they do not carry much weight) I have written content and articles around them (on ezine, squidoo etc.) I have written unique content for the site I have done guest posting on blogs Not sure what to do next though for high power links. I did notice a Q&A on contacting webmasters and asking for links (after building a relationship) but wondered if there was anything (offsite wise) that I have missed out? Appreciate any advice. Regards, David
Technical SEO | | Marketingquotes0 -
Preserving Link Value
My client has an existing domain, domain A. They recently purchased and absorbed another company with their own domain, domain B. For marketing purposes company B will be rebranded as company A. They want to redirect domain B to domain A. The problem is that company B has by far the more visible domain, with 4x the number of inbound links. If I redirect domain B to domain A, what will happen to these links? I'm thinking their value will be lost.
Technical SEO | | waynekolenchuk0