Outward links and PR

sujith.it · #1 (**permalink**) 09-03-2008, 04:29 AM

I have read that outgoing links dilute a site's page ranking. If this is true could someone explain the pros and cons of reciprocal link building?

lisa · #2 (**permalink**) 09-03-2008, 12:05 PM

I think it depends how it's done. If you create a "List of Links" page with a ton of links to other sites in exchange for other people to link to you, then this could hurt you because the engines see it as a "linking scheme". But if you are casually recommending a few sites here and there I can't see how that would hurt you (especially if the sites are related).

If you're going to do an exchange (and I'm not a big fan of these anymore) the best way to do it is by doing a contextual exchange where you provide a link to your partner in a related article and not on a page with a lot of other links. And of course they do the same for you.

Jordy3738 · #3 (**permalink**) 09-03-2008, 07:32 PM

I have understood linking to be like voting. If you have a link pointing to your site from my site that is a vote for your site. If you have one from my site and another site, that is two votes for your site. But when you place someone Else's link on your page that's a vote for them that cancels out one of your links on someone Else's site. Does that make sense? More links pointing to you and less pointing away from you is better. But page rank is really important.

I fell like I am babbling

James · #4 (**permalink**) 09-03-2008, 09:00 PM

This is an area I have not worked on YET, but I had heard that links on your site that point to high ranking sites help. Not so?

Any authorities on this among us? I would be interested in hearing some more details.

lisa · #5 (**permalink**) 09-12-2008, 12:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by James

This is an area I have not worked on YET, but I had heard that links on your site that point to high ranking sites help. Not so?

Any authorities on this among us? I would be interested in hearing some more details.

I've also read this has an influence, but I'm not sure how much. And just like anything else it would depend on how you do it. Obviously you wouldn't just create a directory-like page and link to a bunch of sites with a high PR. I would guess contextual links here and there would have more of an impact.

jazzguy · #6 (**permalink**) 09-18-2008, 03:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by James

This is an area I have not worked on YET, but I had heard that links on your site that point to high ranking sites help. Not so?

Any authorities on this among us? I would be interested in hearing some more details.

I am not an authority on this topic, but I do know that it is the reverse of what James is describing. If high ranking sites link to your site in a relevant way (ie: not in a banner farm or link farm kind of way), and these are sites that have good Page Ranking, then it adds to the relevancy of your site and gives you a boost in ranking. Linking from your site to high ranking sites doesn't really do that much. If that was the case, everyone would be linking to the Big Boys and pandemonium would sweep the Web...

Hope this helps. All the best.

James · #7 (**permalink**) 09-18-2008, 05:32 PM

That is certainly the primary thing to remember and I didn't mean to suggest otherwise. One of the primary things to work for in getting traffic is to have links from good sites to ours.

I was responding only to Jordy3738's discussion about whether outgoing links from our site to others had a negative impact, subtracting from our incoming links. I have not heard that.

I have heard that links from us to poor sites or lists of links standing alone have a negative impact. And I have also heard that links to informative sites also help. For the reason you mention I know it would not be a major one or as important as the incoming links. But I have never seen an authoritative presentation on it.

jazzguy · #8 (**permalink**) 09-18-2008, 07:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by James

That is certainly the primary thing to remember and I didn't mean to suggest otherwise. One of the primary things to work for in getting traffic is to have links from good sites to ours.

I was responding only to Jordy3738's discussion about whether outgoing links from our site to others had a negative impact, subtracting from our incoming links. I have not heard that.

I have heard that links from us to poor sites or lists of links standing alone have a negative impact. And I have also heard that links to informative sites also help. For the reason you mention I know it would not be a major one or as important as the incoming links. But I have never seen an authoritative presentation on it.

Ahhh....that explains it. I reread your response to jordy and the "Not so?" Looked more like a question than an affirmative statement of fact. My bad...

James · #9 (**permalink**) 09-18-2008, 08:43 PM

Your response was fine. No need to have any concern about that. The "Not so?" was a question of sort. I would be interested to know the facts of the matter but it is basically trivia. Outgoing links are relatively unimportant compared to incoming ones.

I do refer to sources a lot. If selecting from among those sites with higher rankings has any value I might consider it a little. If the reality of things, however, I will always prefer to choose sources that offer the most value.

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