out-going/outbound links

[chokan]

How about the out-going/outbound links' effect to site ranking on GOOGLE?

[bekyed]

Hi
Google (and other search engines) value outgoing links if the 'linked to' page is of the same topic as the page being linked. More
importantly, your visitors will benefit from such links if they are on topic to what they are looking for.

Bek

[d_stew]

Actually, the site being linked to will benefit from the link itself. It won't help ranking, but it will help importance. The thing that will help with ranking is the anchor text of the link, not the tpoic of the page doing the linking, neccessarily.

[JuniorOptimizer]

Outgoing links are treated with great reverence by Google. Lots of times you can rank your page just by linking to another popular page on the subject.

[ronin100]

Wow!
I'm glad I stumbled into this thread. I was going to post about this for the past two nights and just got too busy. I had heard that giving out a link or two to a very high PR site (or two) can actually boost PR and/or increase placements for your web site.

I have a page of reciprocal links and have a PR8 site that is "on target" for my niche picked out to link to and wonder where to put that link? Same as with the other recip's or somewhere else?

Would someone make an example of the anchor text to the target site perhaps? I sell blue widgets, so I link to widgetworld PR8. What would my best anchor text be?

Maybe someone will add their .02 before I do this...I hate giving links. I do love better placements & PR = give a freebie to a heavy hitting site...hmmmm?

[JuniorOptimizer]

You have a good idea. Link to the best sites on the subject. "Real recognize real".

Use anchor text for words you'd like to rank for.

[somerset]

So what we are theorizing is (for example) if your website is a marketing company, you might link out to the chartered institure of marketing (big here in the uk), or a web company to WC3 etc. ...

So I'm guessing that this would be on a per page basis, as opposed to a general 'more information links' page.

When we go back to Googles roots of acedemia, this is after all how many research papers are formatted - with reference footnotes at the bottom of each page.

mmmm, so maybe this is the website model Google is really looking for?

[Digimon]

It's not clear that outgoing lnks help you in rankings. Has anybody got any proof on that?
It's true that using your main KW for a page in the anchor text of links on that page helps (and it doesn't mind if it's internal or external link).I can assure it. The other theory is one of those big SE misteries and legends around for long time....

[edited by: Digimon at 12:36 pm (utc) on May 26, 2004]

[somerset]

So here is my question: the 'authority site' - is that one that is rightly highly acclaimed (such as in the preceeding examples) or is it one with a high PR that Google feels is 'highly acclaimed'.

If the example cases were a low PR, yet in fact these are important to the particular industry, would Google still see a link to them as one to an 'authority site', or instead do we go digging for a high PR site instead.

Any insight welcome ...

[jo1ene]

the 'authority site' - is that one that is rightly highly acclaimed (such as in the preceeding examples) or is it one with a high PR that Google feels is 'highly acclaimed'.

I was let to believe that both types were of value to G. Pick one and run with it?

[mrclark]

Am I reading this correctly ..

You are saying that linking to a popular website will help your page rank? Even if they arn't linking back?

I'm sure I have misread the post as that just wouldn't make sense.

So sorry if that's the case ;)

Steve

[Digimon]

No, that's what they are saying. unbelievable but true.

[mrclark]

I don't imagine for a second that Google would reward a webpage for linking out no matter who it is to .. it doesn't make programming sense and I've done quite a bit of it in my time.

Steve

[caspita]

mrclark,

I think the point is not just linking to a high PR site .. the link needs to be 'on topic', in a contextual or editorial way.. as was pointed before, a link from a general link_page won't work.. but if you sale oranges and post an article about florida oranges and in the middle there you link to 'good' and high PR resources pages and using good anchor text then those links will become a high value because you are helping the users to find more 'very relevant' info (the most inmportant, you are helping the spiders to 'understand' the business rules ;) ).. I think GG and other spiders are more than ready to analize that kind of linking and give some important amount of points for the total score. it makes a lot of sense for me at least.

CS.

[mrclark]

Yeah but the thing you have to remember is, Google isn't human. It can only look at text it can't understand it.

I'm not getting into a debate about this, I just think from a programming view, this could easily be manipulated by a website owner so that a website would gain benefit through 'cheating'.

I can't see Google using it in their algorithm that's all. Think of it like this ...

Website A has a link from B & C ... this is the way Google see as A being important so it rewards A, it wouldn't reward B & C. The reward rightly goes to the website that is getting all the links to it.

Imagine you are driving through the country and every time to reach a town/city you see a sign post 'Manchester - X miles away' ... you can tell that Manchester must be pretty special as opposed to little surrounding towns/cities which don't even get a mention.

I hope this makes sense as I'm waffling now :)

Steve

[jo1ene]

the 'authority site' - is that one that is rightly highly acclaimed (such as in the preceeding examples) or is it one with a high PR that Google feels is 'highly acclaimed'.

Is this new? There a lot of cheaters out there no matter what you rank, put importance on, give points to, whatever!

I don't think that outound links help PageRank per se, but help Google rank your page on the SERP's for relevent searches.

[cyberprosper]

I have a "viagra" site and "mortgage" site that I would be happy to allow you all to link to. In fact, I will wave my normal outgoing-link-to-my-site-fee for any member of webmasterworld.

Remember, you should link to my site so you can get ranked higher for viagra or mortgages. It will be good for you.

[ronin100]

"viagra" site and "mortgage" sites.

what a depressing post!

[MarshallClark]

"I'm not getting into a debate about this, I just think from a programming view, this could easily be manipulated by a website owner so that a website would gain benefit through 'cheating'..."

Steve,

From a different POV, maybe Google isn't rewarding those that link out to on-topic sites so much as they are penalizing those who don't. From our limited viewpoint it would still seem like they were rewarding on-topic linking behavior.

/-m

[steveb]

Linking out to quality sites obviously should benefit the site doing it.

I used this example before. I have a niche news page. It links out to news stories on my niche. These stories are on CNN, Yahoo News, the New York Times, etc. Okay, now it should be obvious that this linking out sends a signal that my page is about "news". Then, my domain about "niche" sends a clear signal too via internal links. Somewhat more difficult, the CNN/etc stories are all about "niche" too, and if Google is clever enough to see that, then all the better.

I can make any page I want relevant to the niche. Linking to authority "news" sites sends a message that this niche page is relevant for news, and thus it ranks first for niche news.

That is very basic and sensible search engineering. Linking out to quality/authority sites is a great way to help Google figure out what your page is about, and then also rate your judgment on value (meaning linking to CNN reflects better than linking to some spammy doorway).

[Digimon]

Of course, Steve, outgoing links to pages related with your site help to your rankings. Your example is quite good to understand how it can help. It helps, not too much but yes a bit. And bit a bit you get the top. But they will never and ever help you in terms of PR (that's what some people are trying to say here) if yo don't get a reciprocal link from that pages. And even if you get it you have to measure another factors to discover the real profitability for you of the exchange . I'm not saying you have to stop linking other pages to keep your PR, I'm not saying not to link them if they don't want to link you back, or if they haven't got a good PR or too many links in the page they are going to place your link.Links are essential in the nature of the Internet and we have to make the most of the hypertext posibilities in order to create context and make richer our documents. But we shall not spread wrong theories either. Like the one "linking to authority sites will boost my PR". That's simple nonsense.

[steveb]

"'linking to authority sites will boost my PR'. That's simple nonsense."

Yes. Authority has nothing to do with PR. Linking out can help you with bettering your position in the search rankings, but it doesn't help with pagerank.