How to use external linking for SEO?
2 answers
@domenico.weimann
External linking is an important part of search engine optimization (SEO) because it helps search engines understand the relevance and authority of your website. Here are some tips for using external linking for SEO:
- Link to high-quality and relevant websites: Linking to relevant and authoritative websites helps to establish your website's authority and credibility.
- Use natural anchor text: The text you use to link to external websites should be descriptive and natural. Avoid using generic or keyword-stuffed anchor text as it can harm your SEO.
- Link to different types of websites: Linking to different types of websites, such as news sources, industry blogs, and academic websites, can help establish your website's authority in your industry.
- Avoid excessive linking: Excessive linking to external websites can be seen as spammy and may harm your SEO. Only link to websites that are relevant and add value to your content.
- Monitor your external links: Regularly check your external links to ensure that they are still relevant and working. Broken links can harm your SEO.
- Request links from other websites: You can reach out to other websites in your industry and request that they link to your website. This can help increase your website's authority and credibility.
- Avoid buying or trading links: Buying or trading links is against Google's Webmaster Guidelines and can harm your SEO. Focus on creating high-quality content that naturally attracts external links.
@domenico.weimann
Ensure that the external websites you link to are reputable and have a good domain authority. You can use tools such as Moz's Open Site Explorer or Ahrefs to check the domain authority of a website before linking to it.
When linking to external websites, try to incorporate a mix of both dofollow and nofollow links. Dofollow links pass on link juice and help improve your website's rankings, while nofollow links indicate that the linked website is not endorsed by you and are useful for maintaining a natural link profile.
Consider adding a rel="noopener noreferrer" attribute to your external links. This attribute helps prevent the linked website from gaining access to your site's data or opening a new tab that could potentially hijack the user's browser session.
Avoid using excessive external links within a single piece of content. Search engines may interpret this as a spammy practice, so it's best to limit the number of external links to relevant and high-quality sources.
Regularly check your external links to ensure they are still active. Broken or redirected links can negatively impact user experience and hinder your SEO efforts. Tools like Broken Link Checker or Screaming Frog can help you identify and fix broken links.
Remember that external linking is just one aspect of SEO. It should be combined with other optimization techniques, such as creating high-quality content, optimizing your website's structure, and promoting your site through social media and other channels, to achieve the best results.