What Are The Best Outbound Link Strategies in Articles?

[morestar]

So in an attempt to lessen the possibility of my articles being considered spam (for a lack of a better label) I've thought that rather than only creating links to my site within my articles, but adding outbound links to other (what I could consider to be) authority sites would make my articles seem less about me (my site) and more about the topic...

When you write articles do you mostly add links back to your site or do you add links to other sites as well - always, sometimes or for the most part if you do add links at all?

I'm basically looking for the best ways to enhance my articles and get the most from them from an SEO perspective as possible.

[Doc]

Originally Posted by morestar

So in an attempt to lessen the possibility of my articles being considered spam (for a lack of a better label) I've thought that rather than only creating links to my site within my articles, but adding outbound links to other (what I could consider to be) authority sites would make my articles seem less about me (my site) and more about the topic...

When you write articles do you mostly add links back to your site or do you add links to other sites as well - always, sometimes or for the most part if you do add links at all?

I'm basically looking for the best ways to enhance my articles and get the most from them from an SEO perspective as possible.

My approach is to put a link back to my site in my bio or profile only, and limit myself to links to other sites within the piece. Even when guest-blogging or commenting on articles or blogs, I usually adhere to this. And since many article sites (and most blogs, it seems) are nofollow within the article and comments, but NOT in the profile, I think it benefits me more. As you say, it makes the articles/posts seem more about the topic than the author.

[morestar]

I hear you Doc...

I do make sure though, that the sites I submit my articles to don't have nofollow in their links, that's a main thing I look for. I do like your idea of putting a link only in your author bio but the only problem with that is that the link isn't in the context of the article - for the most part. If the article is carefully crafted and includes carefully crafted anchor text, that link just might be better in the long run.

I guess the answer really isn't that difficult and I've answered it myself...at the very least, place a link or two to other related sites and things will look more natural.

[Doc]

Originally Posted by morestar

I hear you Doc...

I do make sure though, that the sites I submit my articles to don't have nofollow in their links, that's a main thing I look for. I do like your idea of putting a link only in your author bio but the only problem with that is that the link isn't in the context of the article - for the most part. If the article is carefully crafted and includes carefully crafted anchor text, that link just might be better in the long run.

I guess the answer really isn't that difficult and I've answered it myself...at the very least, place a link or two to other related sites and things will look more natural.

Also, recognizing that many readers won't look for my bio, and hence, won't see my sitelink, I sometimes put a link to my bio on their page, within the intro to the article, which will hopefully draw them in.

My grand-daddy always said, "You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him cinch up his own saddle."

[Dinghus]

I'm always amazed how people think like this. You are trying to look professional in your articles. Okay. So what are your articles intended to do? Are they just information? Say like something you would submit to a peer reviewed journal? Or is it to drum up business/sales for you?

You want to be professional and look natural? This means NO self-promotion? Why is that? Look to the TRUE professionals. The big corporations. Do you see them linking to other sites but not their own? Never. It is about getting traffic to your site. It is to establish yourself as an authority who people will trust and want to do business with. If you send them to other sites you are basically saying "they know better than me" and that is where they will go and never come back to you.

I only link to sites in my articles that have nothing to do with my business. Of course most articles sites limit you on total links and self-promotion links especially. I know eZine says you can't have a link to your own site "above the fold" (whatever the heck that means on the internet). The lame excuse is they want "quality content" and not advertisements. Right. Ain't gonna happen. ALL articles are about self-promotion.

This goes hand in hand with Google limiting things like caps and exclamation marks. Why? Don't they look in the print media's ads? They say it doesn't look professional even tho the pros use caps and !!!!!'s all the time.

Look, the purpose of your articles and ads is to attract customers. So don't go sending them off to other people. That would be like Joe Used Car Salesman sending you to Trustworthy Al down the street. But if you want to send traffic to other sites, you can send it to me!

[tangeray]

I have heard that outbound links to authoritative sites will increase your pagerank of linking article, and also make the linking article more useful to it's readers.

I have a question though. What is this "nofollow" jazz you are talking about and what does it do?

[morestar]

Originally Posted by Dinghus

If you send them to other sites you are basically saying "they know better than me" and that is where they will go and never come back to you.

...well, in the case I'm speaking of, I will say, the links wouldn't be to other sites related to my signature site per say...

For instance, today I wrote an article on how to catch your boyfriend/girlfriend cheating on you by using certain sites...like craigslist...I linked out to craigslist...but i didn't indicate that they knew better than me or that going there will be a better option than visiting my site...

do you know what I mean?

There are links to other sites that prove or enhance a point within a paragraph. I can't see how that could hurt the intention of the article.

I think the strategies for writing articles change based on the particular subject AND/OR the product or services being offered - it's not all clear cut...

[morestar]

Originally Posted by tangeray

I have heard that outbound links to authoritative sites will increase your pagerank of linking article, and also make the linking article more useful to it's readers.

I have a question though. What is this "nofollow" jazz you are talking about and what does it do?

You will find in many links a 'nofollow' attribute value, in the code:

<a href="mysite.com/ladies-shoes.php" rel="nofollow">ladies shoes</a>

The nofollow attribute value apparently tells the search engines not to 'follow' or pass link juice (PR) to the site you're linking to...many people won't write articles at article sites that throw that attribute value into their links because they feel it will be a waste of their time.

[Doc]

Originally Posted by tangeray

I have heard that outbound links to authoritative sites will increase your pagerank of linking article, and also make the linking article more useful to it's readers.

I have a question though. What is this "nofollow" jazz you are talking about and what does it do?

NOFOLLOW refers to specific coding that is placed on a page, which prevents pagerank "juice" from being passed on to the site that is linked to. In the absence of the NOFOLLOW code, such juice will be passed on.

In other words a NOFOLLOW link to your site, from a PR6 site, is worth no more than the traffic it might bring you, whereas a non-NOFOLLOW link from a PR2 site would bring traffic AND pass some PR on to you.

[Dinghus]

The NOFOLLOW is another lame attempt at being "legitimate". It is to stop the link spammers. Google decided that to stop the linkfarms it would be better to have the NOFOLLOW so their bots would not go to the sites on the link farms.
So for awhile, I'm not sure if they still do, Google wouldn't spider sites that had more than a magic number of links unless it had NOFOLLOW. Stupid. But they are king and it is good to be the king.

How to catch your wife/girlfiend cheating by using Craigslist? ROFL Take out a Craigslist ad saying "ARE YOU CHEATING ON ME????"

[cw1865]

For articles I tend to point to pages that I find not in google's cache. I troll around every now and then and will hit the 'cache' at random and if its not in there, I'll try to get some kind of link pointing to it. I'll make a list of the pages that I point to and it seems fairly effective at getting pages into google's cache and of course its difficult to truly know if its the link pointing in or if google simply wound up finding the page anyway.

I believe this is called a 'deep linking' strategy, but my SEO strategy is akin to dart playing, its just another dart that I play.

[kgun]

Noted this related thread today when WPW was down in Norway: Pros and Cons of Linking to the Competition

[keyon]

Originally Posted by cw1865

...it seems fairly effective at getting pages into google's cache and of course its difficult to truly know if its the link pointing in or if google simply wound up finding the page anyway.

I think this is a fairly common strategy - for quickly getting search engines to see new pages you've added to your site - pages that would otherwise take months (or never) to show up in the SERPs.

Why anyone would link to other sites they don't own is a mystery to me. I think part of the confusion comes from the fact that a lot of Web developers are just that - Web developers - not marketers.

[simonm]

Originally Posted by keyon

Why anyone would link to other sites they don't own is a mystery to me. I think part of the confusion comes from the fact that a lot of Web developers are just that - Web developers - not marketers.

Correction: not web developers but page designers who think they are web marketing experts!

[tangeray]

Originally Posted by keyon

I think this is a fairly common strategy - for quickly getting search engines to see new pages you've added to your site - pages that would otherwise take months (or never) to show up in the SERPs.

Why anyone would link to other sites they don't own is a mystery to me. I think part of the confusion comes from the fact that a lot of Web developers are just that - Web developers - not marketers.

Because it increases the value of content and PR on the page giving the link. You have to weigh the pros and cons. I recommend linking to information sites like wikipedia ect and not your competition ( ex. if you sell Dish Network, don't link to Dish Network site, but wiki's Dish page is OK)

[keyon]

Originally Posted by tangeray

Because it increases the value of content and PR on the page giving the link.

So what's the point of boosting the PR of the article page if you don't have a link to your own site?

(given that outgoing links play a part in PR to begin with)

[morestar]

Originally Posted by keyon

Why anyone would link to other sites they don't own is a mystery to me.

well...here are a few reasons...

to view this you will need to download adobe reader
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visit this site for more detailed info on...

there really are a million reasons we link to other sites that we don't own.

Outbound links in or out of articles are a part of what makes the web go around and around and around and right back to your site if you're lucky!

[morestar]

I think at this time I'm going to stick with let's say out of 9 pages;

2 have no links to my site other than in the bio,
2 have links pointing to other related sites,
4 have links to my site and another site and
one has 1 link to my homepage and an internal page...

...something to the effect of those numbers...

I feel that type of article writing strategy looks the most natural to the bots and your readers...

I must say thank's for the ideas everyone...

[Doc]

Originally Posted by morestar

I think at this time I'm going to stick with let's say out of 9 pages, 2 have no links to my site other than in the bio, 20 have links pointing to other related sites, 4 have links to my site and another site and one has 1 link to my homepage and an internal page...

...something to the effect of those numbers...

I must say thank's for the ideas everyone...

If I may suggest...

if you keep a detailed log of precisely what you do, and when you do it, and then later compare it to your traffic logs on your site, it may give you some good information.

(and of course, you'll be properly thanked for sharing it with us all, later )

[morestar]

OK will do !

I can say, for the past 2.5 years I've been watching one of my competitors closely - he's been ranking above me and probably was live before I was too...

Anyways, I started seeing articles written by him all over the net and at first couldn't understand why - I noticed he also had about 5 links to his site with the same anchor text in each article, I even saw entire blogs dedicated to articles and links to his site, again the same anchor text...so I finally decided it was my turn to try this strategy and I can say it has worked! I'm keeping up with him (I respect his strategy big time) and I hope to eventually 'out-write' him! (or get a nice link *wink wink*)

So I have seen results and quite a bit - I've gone a little crazy writing articles these past two months and found myself in a solid #4 and so I've got to keep on plugin!

[mjtaylor]

Originally Posted by tangeray

I have heard that outbound links to authoritative sites will increase your pagerank of linking article <snip>

No, linking out won't increase the PageRank of the linking pate. However, it *does* increase the relevance of the page.

Morestar, I do think linking to relevant, authoritative sites is a good idea for your articles, where relevant.

Nice post.

[morestar]

well to be clear this particular article was about using free dating sites and/or craigslist to find cheaters...i linked to my site and craigs as examples (links) of places you can go to begin the process...(it involves creating fake profiles, contacting the cheating culprit and luring him into his/her own demise)...

For the article it was right to link to craigs, it's one of the 'places to go' in the article - the link out makes the article go under the 'obviously self serving' filter...or does it?

But MJT, why do you feel it's not good to link out to other (related/authoritive) sites?

[morestar]

I wanted to edit my last question to you MJT, I thought you had said you don't think linking out is a good idea, but you clearly said you do think it's a good idea...my apologies MJT...

[astro]

Originally Posted by simonm

Correction: not web developers but page designers who think they are web marketing experts!

So very true! How many medium company IT departments control web site content and strategies? Or worse graphics guys and girls given a free hand on page content? Each fighting the other to grab as much page input to justify budgets?

I am curious to know how you decide all the effort of writing articles for the links pays dividends?

By Increased traffic?

Does the increase of traffic lead to sales increase or are you attracting time wasters and link clickers who have lost interest in what they are looking at so click away?

I used to put a "Go here for free item" on important enquiry form pages to steer time wasters away! The one thing you can be very sure of apart from death and taxes, is every visitor arriving will leave your site, so why not spend the time trying control the manner in which they leave and where they go?

I. E...... link to your own sites.

True I am in a vertical market place and people always think of questions you have already answered but they do not read emails fully, they scan them! and this year if you divided every email for information requests into every sale it equal 11 emails per sale.

Why would you want more work? writing articles then getting increased traffic adds to work load > At what stage do you become a busy fool? (retorical question. No insult or offence intended)

/astro

[Tarzan2]

Don't you just love questions like this?
Seems there are as many answers as there are posters.
Good food for thought though! All valid ideas. Which is the best?
I say use your intuition and go with what it tells you. By all means consider what others think, but in the end, it is YOUR site and YOUR business, so do what your gut instinct tells you to do after you have digested all the input. We all think differently and may have a different idea of what success is measured by, thus affecting the goal we try to achieve. With different goals comes different strategies.

[BoothWizard]

hey astro,
I like your signature! And I'll be sure to hold on to my shoes!
I would say this, if your link is promotional, it belongs in the bio. If it is spammy, it doesn't really matter what else you do, it is still spammy. If it is a "legit" link, you shouldn't need to add other links or somehow try to "justify" it, it should stand on it's own. Hope this makes sense.
And hold on to your shoes when astro is around.

[mjtaylor]

Originally Posted by Tarzan2

Don't you just love questions like this?
Seems there are as many answers as there are posters.
Good food for thought though! All valid ideas. Which is the best?

Not all valid ideas, actually ...

Originally Posted by tangeray

Because it increases the value of content and PR on the page giving the link.

This is inaccurate. Linking out to relevant sites doesn't increase your PR; in fact, it leaks PR. However, it can boost your page's relevance, and is a good practice.

This is a fact.

Frankly there is nothing wrong with linking out to the competition if you do it "below the fold." If you haven't captured your customer above the fold, you are not likely to lose anything.

Just wanted to make sure that's clear.

[amorsolo]

Originally Posted by mjtaylor

Not all valid ideas, actually ...

This is inaccurate. Linking out to relevant sites doesn't increase your PR; in fact, it leaks PR. However, it can boost your page's relevance, and is a good practice.

True, the more links a web page has, the lesser link juice is passed even if the web page has a very high PR.

I usually abstain as much as possible putting any other links in my articles unless they are needed to clarify some things.