Too many outbound links

and other issues

[jamesthorn]

This site is less than one year old and from the outset had setbacks.

In the first 3 months nearly 90,000 visitors ( we have the most relevant name in our biz and used sponsored links a lot) then our host was hacked and our site too, they made a mess of the site and it took months to put it back together...Then we had to switch host so we move to a US host from UK and dissapeared from search engines for months.

Finally we reappear..top of Yahoo for dozens of our search terms and in the last 2 months Google too.

We dissapeared of Google again for a week in January but now we're back to normal serps.

However we've just lost page rank to only 3. Will this cause another drop in serps.

This site is really designed with the end user in mind..Lots of unique content but we do have syndicated news and RSS feeds.

We also have lots of outbound links (for the benifit of users)

Are we being Penalised for this?

[Simsi]

Pagerank won't affect rankings - if the site is authoratative content, that is far, far more important. Regards outbound links, I tend to limit mine to 10/12 or so max. unless it's a "resources" page specifically for that task. Logically, if you need to refer users off-site then a) you lose visitors and b) you could be telling Google you don't have what visitors want, so I'd limit these personally.

[edited by: Simsi at 9:47 pm (utc) on Jan. 22, 2007]

[kidder]

It depends on the site, the size of the site, the way the links are setup on the site etc - Don't be afraid to link into a a good resource just to keep google happy. I don't think you will get hit with a penalty for outbounds unless you look like a link farm or do it in an obvious way that is going to raise a flag. Plenty of great sites are loaded with outbound links and they rank highly in the serps. I will always find a way to link into the highest ranking sites in any given vertical, I would go as far as to say it helps.

[Halfdeck]

However we've just lost page rank to only 3. Will this cause another drop in serps.

Loss in PageRank will effect your SERP ranking, but don't confuse that with a dip in the Toolbar - the Toolbar is showing you what's probably been in effect for months. So no, a change in the toolbar will not "cause" loss in traffic. To see what's really going on, check your traffic stats.