- Have you considered outbound link SEO?
- Should you add links to external websites?
- Will it improve your SEO?
Have you ever thought about why it is so important to get high-quality outbound links from your website, or wondered how to generate these links?
Note: External links and outbound links are the same word. In this article, I may use the two terms interchangeably.
Since we live in the post-Panda era, I offer this article to help you understand the importance of outbound links for SEO .
We’ve already discussed how to create backlinks for your website , which will ultimately help improve your search engine rankings, but in the meantime, you should consider an outbound linking strategy to ensure that your blog never loses value.
What are outbound links?
Outbound links are links that point from your website to other domains.
When you link to relevant domains, it not only helps search engines understand your niche but it also helps improve the trust and quality of your website, which plays a vital role in your blog’s SEO.
Outbound links:
- Give search engines a clear idea of your blog through relevant links.
- Provide the best way to keep in touch/build relationships with bloggers in the same niche.
Benefits of outbound links from an SEO perspective:
Before describing the general benefits of outbound links, I want to introduce you to the link operator associated with Google . (This operator is deprecated).
Just like other operators in Google search, you can use Google's related links operator to see which links Google considers to be relevant to your site! A good related sites link will list all the important and popular sites in your field.
FYI, even comment links count as related links, and if someone comments on every post published on your blog, he might even see the benefit of being listed as a related site.
You can search "related:(your domain name).com" in Google to view related website links.
If you check the relevant links of your website and find some spammy links as relevant links, it means you need to start building links from relevant websites to send good signals to search engines.
Read our guide: Blog Comments: When Are They Helpful and When Are They Harmful?
Now that you have a basic understanding of why outbound links are so important, let’s look at things you should consider when linking.
Link to related pages!
Many users avoid adding links to their content, thinking that it will drive away visitors, but this is not the right approach. When you start linking to relevant websites in your niche, you are actually providing search engines with more information about your content, thereby creating a connection between your website and other websites.
Try to link to blogs that have the same topic as your blog. This will help you attract targeted visitors to your blog. Try to link to domains that are already trusted and have good domain authority.
Avoid link farms
Avoid using two-way backlinks and when linking to any domain, make sure it does not belong to a private blog network. As per the recent Google Penguin update, Google has removed all such private blog networks and reduced the value of their links.
Avoid having too many outbound links
Having some inbound links is fine, but too many outbound links can be annoying from a reader's perspective.
Try to focus more on internal linking (part of Wikipedia's SEO strategy) and only link to a few sites that are relevant to your pages.
Link to fewer blogs and only link to relevant blogs. Some pages will link to "Top 101 Websites" or "20 Forums Worth Watching" and similar pages, and they will still rank high despite using multiple outbound links. But for general posts, in order to get a better reader experience, we should be careful not to link too much.
Most importantly, make sure your content is useful and pay attention to on-page optimization.
Providing and requesting links
In blogging, using a give-and-take mechanism is beneficial to everyone. If you cite another author's blog post in your blog post, you should provide a link in your blog post.
You can take it to the next level and let the blog/website owner know that you’ve linked to them.
Who should you link to?
There are many strategies you can follow to build links.
My advice is that when you want to give a reference or explanation in your article but are not sure where to link (what information should you point to as a reference), you can link to a good resource like Wikipedia. (That’s right! Wikipedia is still one of the most trusted domains from Google’s perspective!)
Here are some suggestions for creating outbound links:
- Link to pages that are truly valuable and cover the topic well.
- Link to articles that have good page authority or domain authority.
- Link to articles that have a high social media share rate. (Of course, other factors should also be considered, such as the authenticity of the website)
- Linking out to bloggers in your network or niche helps you create a community with other bloggers.
A long-standing strategy we have at ShoutMeLoud is that when we use a word that is useful but readers may not be familiar with the meaning, we link to a good, reliable source, or if we have a post on the topic, we link to that post.
Keeping in mind the bounce rate, always try to open outbound links in a new tab.
Also in this post-Panda era, I’ve noticed that most of the top-ranking pages in Google have at least a few outbound links to related and top-ranking pages, which helps them rank higher.
What is your outbound linking strategy? When to use nofollow?
Also, when linking to any other page, do you care about the anchor text?
Outbound Links FAQ
How to build external links for SEO? Always focus on linking your content to relevant, trustworthy, and authoritative websites in your field to give your readers a deeper understanding of the topic. A good example is linking to Wikipedia, which is considered a reliable source for most topics.
How many external links per page? There is no set number, but you should maintain a balance and avoid too many external links, which can distract readers. Focus on seamlessly integrating meaningful, informative external links to enhance the reader experience and provide them with value.
If you found the information in this post useful, be sure to share it with your fellow bloggers and friends via LinkedIn and Twitter.
Here are some handpicked guides for you to read:
- Best SEO Keyword Research Tools of 2025
- On-Page SEO Techniques How to Rank on Page 1
- How to Write SEO Friendly Content (Beginner to Advanced)
Disclosure: Some of the links in this article contain affiliate links, which means we may earn a commission if you click through to visit us, at no extra cost to you. See how SidelinePlay is funded, why it’s important, and how you can support us.
Was this helpful?