Editorial Staff
You’ve learnt about internal linking in the previous lesson. Now, we’re going to cover about external linking and how they mean to SEO.
External link or also known as outbound link is a link that target other domain/website that is placed on your site.
Here’s the example. Let’s say your site contains a link to another domain (in this example is www.abc.com).
This means your site is placing an external link to abc.com, while abc.com receives a backlink from your site. You will learn more about backlink in the future lesson.
In other word, external link means any link that you placed on your site that target other site.
Why Websites Put External Link?
When you read some articles online, you might notice most of the website put external links inside the article.
Usually, you will only find these external links placed on blog-type website, and rarely on an e-commerce site.
So, what is the actual purpose of these external link?
Why would a website put a link to another website that can drive away their visitors from their site?
1. Token of Referral
When a website cited an information that sourced from other site, it is common ethic and practice to place a link to the sourced site as a token of referral.
The purpose of citation is to let the readers know where you obtained the information and give credit for the site that you get the source from.
I’d think of linking as just part of proper attribution. You’re a journalist. You write a story, you cite your sources. If those sources are online with more info for the reader, that cite should link to them. That’s just good journalism. It should be standard….
— Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan) October 16, 2019
2. Sponsored Link
Not all the external links you find in a website is a natural link which the site owner is willingly give the link for free as the token of referral.
Sometimes, you’ll find the external link as the result of a sponsored content placement.
This way, it is giving the website a monetary benefit.
3. Affiliate Link
When we talk about monetary benefit, it can be formed in affiliate agreement too.
For example, if you place an affiliate amazon link on your blog post, you’ll earn a commission each time people are buying through the link placed in your site.
These affiliate links are considered as part of external link since it is targeting a different domain.
External Linking and SEO
People that has no background in SEO might know all the 3 points above as the only reasons why a website is linking to another website, considering the risk of driving away their visitors.
In fact, external linking is crucial in the search engine optimization.
Signal to The Search Engine
In the search engine optimization, external links is one of the signal for the search engine to measure your overall content about and quality.
When your site give external links from all the resource sites, it’s telling Google that you’ve done your research work of the related topics and hence it can boost your page rank.
However, it doesn’t mean that you can link to any website blindly.
We will cover how to choose site for external link on the later part.
Build a Relationship With Other Site
Some of the website installed a pingback feature in their website, allowing them to track if someone links to their site.
If they noticed that your site is linking to them and they found that your content is great, there is a chance that they can link back to you naturally.
External Link Practice for SEO
An external link is like a double edged sword.
It can have a positive impact on your SEO if you use it correctly, and it can have a bad impact to your SEO if your methods are wrong.
Here are some practice that you should know before implementing any external link in your site:
1. Relevancy
Link provide relevancy clues that are highly valuable for search engines.
It is important to cite to a relevant content that your page cover.
For example, don’t link out to a car content while your page is about dog.
2. Don’t Link Out to a Other Site’s Page That Target The Same Keyword As Your Page
You have learnt the important of having a targeted keyword for each of your page content.
However, when you’re going to cite from any other sites, make sure that you don’t link from your page’s competitor.
Here’s the example:
Let’s say your page is targeting “how to treat puppy” as the keyword.
You should avoid link to any article that cover:
- 10 Ways to Treat Puppy – This is exactly the keyword that your page is targeting. If you’re linking to them, it means that you’re actually helping out your competitor.
- Best Puppy Treatment – This is a very closely related term to the keyword you targeting.
Instead, here’s some of the article example that you can link to:
- Puppy favorite food – This article contain a different topic but still related to the topic, in this case, puppy.
- Puppy behavior research – You might want want to briefly cover about some research fact and link to a credible site that cover it.
3. Link to a High Quality Site
When your site link to a high authority sites such as Wikipedia or Forbes, it’s like telling Google that you’re actually cited from a credible and trustworthy site.
Hence, it’s like telling them indirectly that your content is also trustworthy.
Meanwhile, low quality sites tend to link to another low quality sites.
Linking to a low authority and spam sites will risk your overall SEO.
Hence, always do a link audit before placing any external links.
4. Consider When to Choose No-Follow and Do-Follow Link
You have learnt about no-follow & do-follow link in the previous lesson.
As a refresher, no-follow link will not give any value in front of Google’s eyes and it won’t give any impact to your overall SEO.
In placing an external link in your site page, be picky to give a do-follow link.
If you feel that the site you’re referring to is a low quality site, set it as No-Follow.
This way, your site SEO won’t get any harm for linking to any low quality sites.
5. Anchor Text
Anchor text on external links should be a range of various natural terms and languages that point out to other pages.
Google will know if the external link you put is simply for a sponsored content link and spam link if you put unnatural anchor text.
