Rare is the month that goes by when the spectre of the none-too-solid argument for hoarding link PageRank and link juice doesn’t rear its ugly head. And since I’ve just spent the last 5 hours on Q+A duty (as our beloved Q+A manager, Jane, is on vacation), and in need of a short punchy post, I’ll make this brief.
Arguments against linking out to other sites:
- If the original PageRank formula holds true, and no other algorithmic elements are in place to benefit sites and pages that link out, you could be costing yourself a small fraction of potential link juice.
- Visitors might click those links and never come back to your site.
Arguments for linking out to other sites:
- You tend to get more links coming back in (evidence)
- Your domain and pages appear in the referral analytics of other sites, inviting site owners (who are often very likely “linkerati”) to check out your site
- The search engines have at least looked into algorithms that reward external linking behavior (like HITS)
- Karma – and not just the invisible, metaphysical kind – bloggers really do look at who links out and who doesn’t and they tend to reward the more generous
- In any type of “neighborhood” link analysis model, a site’s outlinks can be used as a good predictor of a domain’s relative trustworthiness
- Readers and web visitors can derive value from the links you point to, and they can help to prop up the credibility & association of your own site. Note this research about memory association & repetition (and apply it to the marketing world rather than the political)
- Sites that don’t link out are extreme outliers on the web’s link graph and thus, may fall more easily into negative classification schemes (particularly if they’re run by overzealous, over-optimizing SEOs) 🙂
- Never linking out doesn’t keep visitors on your site any longer, it simply means they’ll jump away via the back button, bookmarks, a browser close, or a typed-in address
- Pete has a few more good reasons on his post – Quit Hogging All The Links!
What do you think? Is there anyone who still practices the never (or rarely) link out philosophy?
