Why You Should Link to Other Sites
From a layman's point of view, linking to other sites won't make much sense if your ultimate goal is to jack up traffic to your site. If anything, putting too many outbound links on your page might drive people away as it gives them more options. It is seen as showing them the way out, rather than keeping them comfortable and making them stay. And for good reason. After all, search engines generally evaluate a site based on inbound links or links that lead to it.
It is thus easy to underestimate the value of outbound links in increasing traffic to your site and boosting your ranking. While it is true that your online marketing campaign ought to focus on getting links to your site, inbound and outbound links should work hand in hand in a competent SEO campaign.
Are you helping the competition?
The most common impression people get when you link to a competitor's site is that you are giving your competitor's site a hand when you include a link to it. This is not necessarily the case.
For instance, if you are in the business of computer parts and you link to sites of more established manufacturers, plus sites that are in your region, a search engine's algorithm will recognize your site's nature based on the nature and location of the sites you link to. Down the line, the search engine spider will recognize your site's relevance and put you there along with them. This comes in handy especially when you want your site to be displayed on local or regional search results.
Establishing credibility
An easier way to understand the importance of outbound links is when you consider how linking to well-known sites puts you at par with them. Also, when you link to credible sites and the user ends up getting what he needs, chances are he won't forget how he got there. If visitors find your site helpful even if you only linked to a useful site, they will link or bookmark you. You also can't discount the possibility of that site linking back to you once the webmaster realizes he is getting a lot of traffic from your site.
Anchor text
Anchor text, or the clickable text that leads to a link, is another tool that webmasters think only works for the benefit of inbound links. In general, anchor texts are a factor in determining page rankings in search engines.
There are several online software programs that determine sites that link to you. Check if these sites are credible and if the anchor texts are descriptive of the keywords of your site. You can always contact the site's webmaster to see if you can work on a deal to use better anchor text when linking to your site.
A little-known fact is that the anchor text of an outbound link works pretty much the same way as its inbound counterpart, albeit it admittedly has less bearing. Anchor texts that satisfy your keyword requirements add relevance to your site when search engines get to work.
Now before you go on an outbound linking spree, make sure that you are linking to good sites. Linking to a website with poor quality will harm your site ranking, so be sure to link only to legal sites that contain high-quality content.
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