Outbound Links
Links from your site to other resources. High‑quality outbound links increase trust and authority of your content.
Outbound links are hyperlinks that go from your site to external domains. Unlike inbound links (someone linking to you), outbound links are placed voluntarily by you. Proper outbound links to authoritative sources show Google that you have done research and rely on facts.
Why use outbound links
Many webmasters fear outbound links, thinking they 'give away link equity' and lower their own PageRank. However, high‑quality links to authoritative sources (Wikipedia, government sites, research, official documentation) increase the trust of your content. Google sees that you are citing facts and may evaluate your page as more useful.
When to use nofollow
By default, all links are dofollow (pass equity). The `rel="nofollow"` attribute tells search engines not to pass PageRank via that link. It should be used for:
- Paid or advertising links
- Affiliate links
- User‑generated content (comments, forums) – also consider `rel="ugc"`
- Untrusted or unverified sources
For editorial links to authoritative sources, nofollow is not required.
Best practices for outbound links
- Link only to relevant and authoritative sites.
- Don‘t put too many outbound links on one page (1–5 per 1000 characters is a good target).
- Use nofollow for all user‑generated, paid, and affiliate links.
- Check that links don‘t point to broken pages (404) or banned resources.
- Occasionally linking to competitors with useful information is fine – it demonstrates impartiality.
Common questions
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