Selling dofollow links is illegal to the search engines but the search engines have to rely on based on prediction as websites normally link websites with dofollow links. Something illegal to the search engine means the webmaster needs to remain vigilant. The website of many webmasters underperforms out of ignorance. Both the inbound link and outbound link can change the identity of a website to the search engines. While is costly and time-taking to work improve the quality of backlinks, it does not cost a huge to give importance to the inbound link and outbound link.
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What is an Outbound Link?
Outbound links are the links that point from a website to another web. It is usually used to point the reader to another web source for more information on the topic the article or stanza is about. Sometimes it is added to add a credit to the original creator.
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Outbound links can have different tags such as nofollow, me and so in. These microdata requests the search engine bots to perform the desired action. An outbound link with a nofollow tag is a request to Google’s system not to count the draining link juice. A nofollow tag is deliberate and it is important to plan which links to keep as dofollow and which as nofollow.
Outbound links and backlinks are not completely about Google search engine. There were algorithms before Google existed (hub score) which used to calculate the outbound links. This emphasizes the fact – Google search is not the matter, as long webpages will exist, backlink and outbound links will carry certain value. Also, the anchor text used in the links is thought to be a good indicator of the content.
Are All Outbound Links are Harmful?
Not. Various automated tools try to understand whether the website is spammy from the backlinks and outbound links. Linking to the popular webpages with a good resource can help to gain authority of the webpage using a practical outbound link. Outbound links are known to bring balance and authenticity to the webpage. A webpage linking to related web content can perform better. Also, when we link a webpage with a do-follow link, they tend to promote the linking webpage for their indirect gain. There is a well-known article named “Successful Site in 12 Months with Google Alone” which is the basis of many modern SEO tools which says :
From every page, link to one or two high ranking sites under that particular keyword. Use your keyword in the link text (this is ultra important for the future).
Why Some of the Outbound Links Become Harmful
Because there are too many peoples who create spammy websites with thin content to quickly make money, different ways are discovered by the search engines to identify manipulations. There are content scrappers which extract the text from different websites and spin them. Spammy websites tend to link both genuine websites and spammy websites. Various types of websites are made without much effort are not at all preferred by search engines. Google or any search engine is not going to specially target you for irregular “mistakes”. They research the habits of spammy websites and create algorithms. Majestic has a tool to display Topical Trust Flow (TTF). This is an important metrics. If you link towards the spammy websites more than a set threshold then the algorithms of the search engines may identify your website as spammy. Furthermore, low quality paid articles often contain two or three links (one towards a spammy website, rest towards the genuine sites) creating a unique pattern.
Which Type of Outbound Links are Bad?
Search engines try to determine a website’s authority by calculating the websites which are associated via backlinks and outbound links. If it looks like the main purpose of a website or webpage is to give outbound links then that could be a problem. The outbound links, regardless of the reputation of the website you are linking be on-topic.
Casino websites : Linking towards the established gambling websites does not harm as long the title and context of the webpage gives the reader an idea that the topic may contain a link towards the gambling sites or technology solutions related to gambling. For an article related to the gambling niche, you may have a paragraph reading “Most websites will offer you great deals in form of a welcome bonus, where you will be rewarded a cash/allowance bonus for depositing a certain sum of money – check this out.” In this case, the title and the phrase “check this out” clearly warns the visitor about a link towards a gambling website. As the humans who clicked are not surprised after the click, they will not manually report as spam out of disgust.
Pornography websites : Linking towards pornography websites is extremely dangerous unless the linking website belongs to the adult niche. The search engines tend to have a strict attitude towards the pornography website because many of these websites infamously bait the visitors forcing the installation of malware.
Financial Schemes : Linking towards the pay-day-loan schemes are counted as unsafe.
Pharma websites and other illegal websites : You must avoid linking towards the illegal websites not only for the sake of SEO but also for the fact that this kind of links may put you in legal trouble.
Links towards Paywall : Experts say that linking towards content behind a paywall is not safe.
Conclusion
When the search engines suspect there is a paid relationship (such as in advertising or sponsorship) then they expect a disclaimer and a nofollow tag. There is no doubt that this kind of suspicion invites penalty of the webpage but keeping the outbound links dofollow in the content offers many benefits. We hope that a whole site penalty is triggered by the actions which are literally “too much”. We gave importance to Topical Trust Flow (TTF) analysis. Possibly you should avoid linking towards the websites which are not of your niche detected by Topical Trust Flow (TTF).
