Outbound linking

[toxisoft]

Outbound linking and the importance for SERP-position in Google is a subject of discussion. I think it is important, but how important, do we have any hard evidence?

How important is it in MSN and Yahoo?

[SEOforGoogle]

I have an article on it here:

Why You Need Outbound Links

[bhartzer]

I don't think it's very important to MSN and Yahoo! (yet). But, for Google, it's important--they expect that a good site would link out to other authority sites.

[toxisoft]

Well let’s assume that linking is good, as I believe. How many links should one have on a page, is it a good idea to have some outbound links site wide?

My plan is to have between 0 and 5 links/page, I think it is important not to have to many and not in the same pattern. Most links will be in the content of the page and some links would be I menus etc.

[Steven1976a]

I brought up something similar in an earlier topic about 3-4 weeks ago and the feedback was quite negative in regards to outbound links. I was talking about linking to sites from my home page. At the time I called the outbound links as Competitors websites although I should have referred to them as authoritive sites in the same industry.

If you believe having outbound links helps rank your site where do you think they should be placed within the site? My idea is that usually the home page ranks the best in the search engines. Do you think that the outbound links should be placed on the homepage to authority sites or should you have a designated page within the site to link out to authority sites?

Do the search engines recognise the outbound links for a particular page/url within the website or do they just recognise that the site has outbound links?
steve

[toxisoft]

If you believe having outbound links helps rank your site where do you think they should be placed within the site? My idea is that usually the home page ranks the best in the search engines. Do you think that the outbound links should be placed on the homepage to authority sites or should you have a designated page within the site to link out to authority sites?

I believe that one should strive to make it look natural. If the index-page contains content that is of relevance to a sertain authority site, then words within the content text should be linked to the site.

Do the search engines recognise the outbound links for a particular page/url within the website or do they just recognise that the site has outbound links?

The SE´s will recignise the page holding the link, as well as the content of the page and the relation between the content and the targeted page.