There are certain questions that people in search engine optimisation (SEO) never seem to agree on, and one of them is the potential benefits to having external links within your content. So, what does Google say about linking externally?
Someone recently asked John Mueller, Webmaster Trends Analyst at Google, if outgoing links had any impact on “link juice”, a term sometimes used in the industry to refer to the value of links. According to Search Engine Land, Mueller ignored the question and said that any advice containing the term “link juice” shouldn’t be taken seriously.
Back in 2019, however, Mueller published a video about having external links to your site, where he encouraged linking to external sources to provide more value and context on the topic of the content.
As E-A-T (Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness) is part of the criteria in the ranking algorithm, providing links to established sources and experts is beneficial as it shows that you are using trusted sources within your website content. This boosts your trust with search engines like Google, and of course among human users as well.
Why are some SEOs scared of linking externally?
Some in the SEO industry are a little hesitant to use external links because there are certain linking practices that can lead Google to penalise a website, including:
• Reciprocal links – when you link to another website and that website links back to your site. This is bad practice and can result in a penalty if Google notices it
• Link farms – these are unnatural links that are meant to increase the chances of better rankings and more traffic, but they go against Google’s terms and conditions
Provided it’s done in the right way though, it’s not a bad idea to link to external websites when you have used them as a source in your content, as this can help build trust with search engines and show that you aren’t making unverified claims.
At Engage Web, we provide content and SEO services to businesses that want to grow online and increase sales and leads. If you’d like to find out more about how we can help your business, get in touch with our friendly team today.
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