‘Mutually Beneficial’ Outbound Links
As a digital marketing practice, mutually beneficial outbound links can benefit everyone involved.
In SEO, it is important to make sure your information and content have a foundation of inaccurate information. One way to do this is to link your sources as ‘outbound’ links in your text. Not only is this a good way to show Google you are using quality information, but it is also a great way to build a linking network and find people who will promote your work for you.
What are Outbound Links?
An outbound link is any link you have on your website that will lead visitors to a different site. In many cases, these links are resources you are referencing in a blog or a link to one of your partners.
In SEO, outbound links play a big role because it is a way that search engines discover useful content that will end up ranking highly. If your blogs or pillar pages are being linked to from multiple sources, it shows Google that your content is extremely valuable, so much so that many different sites are referencing it.
These links also help you establish trust with your visitors. When seeking information, many people want to see that your content is authoritative and trustworthy. Linking to trusted sources is one way to do that.
How Can Outbound Links be Mutually Beneficial?
Including an outbound link to a different site is a chance to build a relationship. Letting the owner of the other site know that you’re linking to them improves the chances that they help you promote your content through social media posts or, hopefully, an outbound link from their website which will help your own SEO.
It is also a tried-and-true SEO strategy to offer a ‘link for a link’ in your blogs and content. Meaning you link to a partner’s website and they link to yours (along with promotion on social).
Good Sites for Outbound Links
When deciding who to give an outbound link to, the first thing you should consider is the quality of the information. If it is a trusted source with information you can only find there, it is a link worth putting into your content.
If you are looking for links for purely SEO purposes, doing a quick search on Moz or another SEO search site will show you which sites have higher domain authorities. Sites with high authority will be the best options to link with to build your own authority.
Outbound links are a great way to build authority on your own site, network with sites that you link to, find people who will promote your content, and build your SEO as a whole.
To start setting up mutually beneficial outbound links, book a Planning Session with the search engine optimizers at RizzoYoung.com.