Outbound Links, Do They really help SERPs Options

[1dmf]

Hello,

On another popular SEO forum I have seen many posts indicating that outbound links increase your SERPs and the 'Authority' of your site, yet I got the feeling from HR experts this isn't the case.

here is an example of what the other forum is saying

Google loves to give sites to its users that give information. If your site links to other sites with the right keywords in the anchor text, and those sites are also about those keywords, then you´re becoming kind of a hub to many locations that are relevant. Makes your page a good place to visit.

So it definitely does help to link out. The problem of course is that you don't really want to be a hub. It's no use if your visitor gets in, and gets out without doing what you hope them to do. So you need to choose your outgoing links carefully. And it's also not always the best choice to link out to gain positions in the SERPs.

http://www.webproworld.com/search-engine-o...html#post369810

*Please delete link reference if any Forum Rules have been broken*

Do you guys agree with this logic?

[KingPin]

I wouldn't say it helps with gaining SERPS but it's nice to share links if you deem that site to be appropriate with yours.

KP

[Bagi Zoltán]

I experienced many times that linking to a great site on topic or a hub from a blogpost, or any other content does help the rankings. Maybe, I was the only one who experienced this, but I would doupt that.

[linksleader]

I experienced many times that linking to a great site on topic or a hub from a blogpost, or any other content does help the rankings. Maybe, I was the only one who experienced this, but I would doupt that.

i dont' agree with this philosphy, but i think giving away credit to good content/website is a generous act and good content writing practice. so why not?

[Jill]

1dmf, look for Scottie's posts on dead-end websites for more info on this.

[1dmf]

So do you still hold the same view Jill, that there is no evidence for you to make a decision and it is still speculation?

[Jill]

Yeah, I pretty much do. But it's totally just an opinion. I've never bothered to try to test it or anything. It's really not important to me as I don't link out or in for search engine purposes, only for business purposes.

[nethy]

Google loves to give sites to its users that give information.

It's interesting that so many explain SEs & SEO in terms of 'they like/love this or that'.

[1dmf]

Again whether we like it or not, understanding SE's and wanting to improve SERPs does impact on the decisions we make, which Nethy implied on a response to another thread, we cannot imaginge SE's don't exist, they do and they affect our thought process and descision making.

Generally I don't use many out bound links, no point in linking out for links sake, and maybe part of it is the old 'new window' syndrome, it breaks W3C guidelines if you open a link in a new window, but you can't help that gut feeling of not wanting your visitors to leave your site!

But if it was fact it helped to increase ranking by linking out to other sites, then I would place a link where perhaps i might not have (relevant links of course).

Now I know Jill, doing things for SE's , slap my wrist! But if 'dead-end' pages,are considered less favourable, then what choice do you have?

I don't think i'll worry too much about it at the monent, until someone can confirm one way or the other.

[scouseflip]

If I do a site search (i.e site:www.etc...) on Google, does the order in which the pages are listed give any indication of the importance (as considered by G) of that page within the site?

Reason I ask is that I do some recip linking on 2 sites and have a links page on each to handle this. In both cases the links page are returned directly after the home page in a site search.

The only link to either of these links pages is one on the homepage of each site. I have numerous other pages with links from external sites and all of my important pages are linked to with plain text links from the nav which appears on every page. the only thing setting the links page apart from the other pages is a load of external links.

Don't want to read too much into this of course but there you go...