Posts tagged outbound links
The Legalities of Linking
Apr 13th
If you’re a website owner, then linking out is probably almost as big a part of your SEO marketing strategy as getting inbound links. Today we look at some of the legal issues around linking. The internet itself makes things difficult to enforce, so people are often tempted to forget about the law. Today we show you why it pays to be wary of your legal position when you link out to a site.
Will they break down your door for linking out?
Simply linking out is not illegal
There have been a couple of cases in the States where people have challenged the idea that anyone can just link to anyone else’s site. Fortunately, these have been overturned in every instance. If you ‘just’ link to a site that is publicly accessible, there is little to no possibility of legal action. Thank gosh!
Content in frames
It is possible to link to sites so that their actual content is displayed on your site. Unless you clearly state on your site that the content displayed doesn’t to belong to you, and note the owner, there could be legal issues. This is usually done with frames or iframes.
Libelous links
It’s a well-known and very valid SEO practice to use anchor text for links rather than just typing out the web address. This anchor text shouldn’t contain any defamatory opinion or untruthful claims, though.
So, you shouldn’t write: “This incompetent moron thinks that Google is something you use to see in the swimming pool”. Not cool – and the basis for a libel lawsuit.
Diagnosis: Link Farm
Apr 12th
Ask what a link farm is on any forum or message board, and you’ll draw hundreds of comments doubting that you have the necessary intelligence to stay alive, if you don’t know such a basic fact! Actually, it isn’t always clear what sites would be considered link farms and which would not (and therefore which ones would kill your SEO rankings!), so we review the definition.
The link farm can be identified by its occupants!
The basics
Wikipedia defines a link farm as “any group of web sites that all hyperlink to every other site in the group”.
How do you know if a site is a link farm?
One of the major clues is that they will ask for a link on your own site to theirs, in order to consider linking out to your site.
Another major clue will be their Pagerank. If the site has zero Pagerank (install the Google toolbar and you’ll see a site’s Pagerank in your browser), it is likely that Google considers them a link farm.
If the site has little content in relation to the number of links on its pages, that’s another big clue towards a diagnosis: link farm. If you can’t read 100 words without encountering ten or more links, Google probably considers it a link farm.
The links will be almost exclusively external (to other domains) if a site is a link farm.
And if you value your SEO dollar … stay away from them!
The Importance of Outbound Links – webmarketingexperts.com.au
Jun 25th
Since linking out to other sites diminishes your site’s link juice, internet marketing people tend to exhaust efforts only in building links pointing to their own website.
The belief that linking out or having outbound links would also diminish the value of your site that would result to lower ranking in the search listing is not true. It may diminish your link juice and may cause the decrease of your page rank but your search listing position can’t be lowered.
Outbound linking is a charity. You contribute links to other sites, giving out your link juice to them. You are voting them to increase their link popularity. So, what good would outbound links give for your site? There is good with linking out especially if you do it carefully and appropriately.
Through linking out to other sites that are unquestionably relevant to yours, you are also boosting the relevance and usefulness of your site for search engine users. Google measures the site importance for certain keywords through the site relevance and usefulness of links, both inbound and outbound.
Outbound links also helps boost your visibility for local search. For instance, if your business is a fashion boutique in California, you can also link out to sites that offer the same service within California.
Not to mention, linking out can actually boost your page rank. However, it greatly matters on the relevance of the websites that you link out.