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Seo Outbound Link Relevance
By Joel Walsh, Tue Jan 10th
You know search engines evaluate a site based primarily on thelinks going to it (inbound links). The PageRank of the sites onwhich the inbound links are located, and the anchor text of thelinks, matter a lot. But if you're like most webmasters, youdon't appreciate the value of outbound links. Outbound LinkRelevance & Anchor Text The clearest way that outbound links can affect SEO is throughtheir anchor text.
Outbound links' anchor text affects a page's search engineranking in much the same way that inbound links' anchor textaffects search engine ranking. Anchor text of inbound links isarguably the most important factor in search engine rankings forparticular keywords. For instance, if "fuzzy keyword" is in theanchor text of a link to a webpage, that webpage may well appearin SERPs for "fuzzy keyword" even if neither the word "fuzzy"nor "keyword" appears anywhere on your site. Outbound links' anchor text works the same way, though it isslightly less powerful. If you have a particular keyword in theanchor text of a link on a webpage, that webpage will likelyshow up in search engine results--even if it appears nowhereelse on the page, and even if there are no inbound links withthat anchor text. Don't believe me? Look at your web traffic logs. Check out thesearch engine traffic to specific pages. You'll likely seeplenty of instances of the page getting traffic for searchstrings that appear nowhere else on the page but in the anchortext of outbound links. One example from a site I own is on endometrialcancer.org, aproject devoted to provided information about a disease. Thereare separate pages for symptoms, diagnosis, prognosis, and otheraspects of the disease. Strikingly, one page my rank highly foranother page's target keyword, if it links to the other pagewith the target keyword in its anchor text. For instance, the"diagnosis" page may outrank the "symptoms" page for the keyword"endometrial cancer symptoms," merely because the "diagnosis"page has that keyword in the anchor text of its link to thesymptoms page. How to shoot yourself in the foot withoutbound link anchor text relevance: There are four main ways to shoot yourself in the foot bymishandling outbound links' anchor text: 1. Don't include relevant
outbound links on the webpage. Thereare many sites nearly all of whose pages have no outbound linksbut a standard navigation bar, and perhaps a link to the site'sweb designer, host, or CMS maker. What exactly is a searchengine algorithm supposed to make of a webpage if the onlyoutbound links it has have anchor text such as "about us,""contact," "privacy," "site map," "Design by TechGnome," and"This site powered by Mambo Open CMS"? 2. Don't include off-site outbound links on the webpage. Thinkabout it for a moment: what is the one thing a truly informativewebpage would have to have, besides content? Links to othersites! If a page has no outbound links to other sites, there isa good chance the page is a dead end, or worse, a billboard. Atthe very least, include at least one intra-site link that isn'tpart of the standard site navigation. 3. Include irrelevant links. I have a client site that sellscomputer equipment. After paying me all the money for myservices largely in hopes of getting more search engine traffic,they decide to sell irrelevant links on the homepage, for afraction of what they paid me. If you were a search enginealgorithm, what would you make of a site that had "computerequipment" in the page title, headings, and inbound link anchortext--but had two outbound links with "Costa Rican beach resort"and "Low-cost mortgages" in the anchor text? If I were thealgorithm, I'd get a little confused, and play it safe byranking the site for none of those keywords. After all, thereare plenty of sites that make a less ambiguous case for theirrelevance for any of those keywords. 4. Include relevant outbound links, but forget the anchor text.If you are linking to a relevant webpage, whether on-site oroff-site, by all means, use your page's target keyword in theanchor text! Now is not the time to get lazy and use the URL asthe anchor text. You are doing the right thing by linking torelevant webpage. Make sure you get credit for your good deed!
After all, they call it the web because the links go both in andout, tying sites together like nodes of spider silk. If linkswere only meant to flow one way, they'd just call it thechain. Don't chain your website down. Start sharing the links. About the author: About the author: Joel Walsh writes prolifically on SEO articles:http://www.UpMarketSEO.com
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