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It’s easy for website owners to get caught up building incoming links to improve their search engine rankings on major search engines, however sometimes the benefit of linking to external, relevant websites is overlooked in the process. Linking to additional content that references the ideas in your blog is an easy technique to build the credibility of your articles, particularly if the subject is controversial or needs an expert perspective.
Just like a student is required to quote their information sources to avoid plagiarism, you should also consider referencing the source of your ideas for the content in your blog. This will help prove to your readers that your content contains credible information that is worth reading.
It’s hard to control incoming links from third party websites (with the exception of SEO link building campaigns), but you do have a choice over the external pages you link to from your website, making the websites you do reference extremely important. If you reach out to other related websites using the right techniques, they can improve the ranking of your blog post, in fact “a lot of successful SEOs do it,” as stated on Moz.com’s Blog.
The most important questions to ask before linking to another website include:
- By linking to this webpage, am I providing additional value to my readers?
- Is the content on the destination page relevant to what I wrote about?
- Is the website considered credible in my industry, and do I trust them?
- Is the site free from spam and duplicate content?
- Does the website adhere to Google’s Webmaster Guidelines?
Link to additional, relevant information
The content in your blog should also be relevant to the website (or internal page) you are linking to, and should also provide the visitor with additional information about a specific idea within the content, not necessarily just referencing where your ideas originated. Even Google states, “thoughtful outbound links can help your credibility,” on their Webmaster Blog.
For example; Let’s say you’re creating an entry in your blog about toys that are hazardous for small children. You may want to consider linking out to specific manufacturer websites where the warnings are displayed, or a press release where they highlight the potential risks, or a research article that discusses the toy and any documented safety concerns. These strategies will build credibility for the points you make in your post, as well as providing extra information should the visitor be inclined to read more detailed information.
Trust the source you’re linking to
It’s also vital that you trust the source you’re referencing otherwise you may do yourself more harm than good. You can do this by reading the comments other users have left on previous posts, learn a little more about who they are, and ensure their qualifications are sound.
It is makes sense that you might also be worried about the consequences that arise by linking to other websites. If you don’t want to pass search engine ranking benefits to the destination URL, you have the option to put an attribute on your anchor tag which will prevent any advantage being passed to the destination website. This is achieved by inserting the text, rel=”nofollow”, as another attribute within the anchor tag element.
Know when not to link to a website
You should never link to the following types of websites:
- Low quality adult related websites
- Providing an external link for financial gain or as part of a link scheme
- Low quality content or spam websites
- Pages with a high number of links (relevant or not) on each page
Now, that you’re aware of the benefits of external linking, and the right techniques to employ, you can start adding relevant, credible external links from your website today without fear of repercussions to your rankings or to your website’s traffic.
The content that is added to your website as part of our search engine optimisation campaigns will contain links to credible, external sources. Of course it’s not compulsory but we do recommend it. Call us on 07 3341 7224 to discuss how our SEO packages can improve your rankings today.
