{"id":16243,"date":"2020-02-17T12:34:45","date_gmt":"2020-02-17T18:34:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/?p=16243"},"modified":"2020-09-01T11:12:38","modified_gmt":"2020-09-01T16:12:38","slug":"external-links","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/blog\/external-links\/","title":{"rendered":"External Links: How Outbound Links HELP Your SEO, Directly and Indirectly"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n<div class=\"wp-block-group alignfull has-global-padding is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\" style=\"margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;padding-top:0;padding-bottom:0\">\r\n<article class=\"wp-block-group alignfull has-global-padding is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\" style=\"padding-top:0;padding-bottom:0\">\r\n<section class=\"wp-block-group alignfull is-style-beige has-global-padding is-layout-constrained wp-container-core-group-is-layout-772205c6 wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained is-style-beige--1\" style=\"padding-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--50)\">\r\n<header class=\"wp-block-group c-breadcrumbs aligngrid has-global-padding is-content-justification-left is-layout-constrained wp-container-core-group-is-layout-61973aa6 wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\" style=\"margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0\">\r\n<header class=\"wp-block-group aligngrid is-content-justification-left is-nowrap is-layout-flex wp-container-core-group-is-layout-d68226ec wp-block-group-is-layout-flex\" style=\"margin-top:0;margin-bottom:var(--wp--preset--spacing--30)\">\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-resized\" style=\"margin-bottom:5px\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/mediavine-dev.d1.moderntribe.qa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/chevron-left2.svg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-542\" style=\"aspect-ratio:9\/16;object-fit:contain;width:auto;height:20px\"\/><\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"is-style-small is-style-small--2\"><a href=\"\/blog\/\">Back to Blog<\/a><\/p>\r\n<\/header>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity aligngrid\" style=\"margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0\"\/>\r\n<\/header>\r\n<\/section>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<section class=\"wp-block-group alignfull is-style-default has-neutral-20-background-color has-background has-global-padding is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\" style=\"margin-bottom:var(--wp--preset--spacing--70);padding-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--40);padding-bottom:var(--wp--preset--spacing--60)\"><div class=\"aligncenter aligncenter wp-block-tribe-terms\"><ul class=\"wp-block-tribe-terms__list\"><li class=\"wp-block-tribe-terms__term\"><span class=\"wp-block-tribe-terms__link t-category\">SEO<\/span><\/li><\/ul><\/div>\r\n\r\n<h1 style=\"margin-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--10);\" class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-post-title\">External Links: How Outbound Links HELP Your SEO, Directly and Indirectly<\/h1>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div class=\"wp-block-group is-content-justification-center is-nowrap is-layout-flex wp-container-core-group-is-layout-9b38c6d9 wp-block-group-is-layout-flex\" style=\"margin-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--30);margin-bottom:0;padding-top:0;padding-bottom:0\"><div style=\"margin-bottom:0;margin-top:0;margin-left:0;margin-right:0;\" class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-post-author-name\">Eric Hochberger<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>\u2022<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"padding-top:0;padding-bottom:0;padding-left:0;padding-right:0;margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;margin-left:0;margin-right:0;\" class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-post-date has-10-font-size\"><time datetime=\"2020-02-17T12:34:45-06:00\">February 17, 2020<\/time><\/div><\/div>\r\n<\/section>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<section class=\"wp-block-group alignfull has-global-padding is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\" style=\"padding-top:0;padding-bottom:0\">In today&#8217;s edition of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/what-is-seo-introducing-the-mediavine-search-engine-optimization-series\/\">Mediavine SEO<\/a> series, we&#8217;re going to delve into the role of the external link.\n\nWhat is an external link? It&#8217;s exactly what you think it is \u2014 an outbound link from your web page that points to a third-party site, or a different domain or sub-domain than your site.<!--more-->\n\nAny time you link to another website? That&#8217;s the type of external link we&#8217;re talking about.\n<div class=\"video-responsive\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ZVyKG0PzOGo\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/div>\nOften times publishers think of external links as links <em>towards<\/em> their site. These are incredibly important, but these are actually <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/backlinks-inbound-links-seo\/\">backlinks<\/a>, or incoming links \u2014 a topic for another article entirely.\n\nExternal links are outbound to other sites. What a lot of people don&#8217;t realize is that these outgoing links can have as much impact on your site&#8217;s SEO and rankings as those linking to you.\n\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-16419 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Mediavine-Pins-with-Photos-6.jpg\" alt=\"What are external links? The links on your site that hyperlink to other websites are an important SEO tool. Learn how to harness them for your rankings today! - Mediavine Pinterest image\" width=\"735\" height=\"1102\" data-pin-description=\"What are external links? Learn how to use this important SEO tool for your blog or website today.\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Mediavine-Pins-with-Photos-6.jpg 735w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Mediavine-Pins-with-Photos-6-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Mediavine-Pins-with-Photos-6-307x460.jpg 307w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 735px) 100vw, 735px\" \/>\n<h2>Why External Links Matter<\/h2>\nAs we discussed at length in our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/pagerank-why-links-are-so-important\/\">PageRank post<\/a>, links are basically the voting system of the internet.\n\nVoting via <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/internal-links-pagerank-and-simple-seo-you-can-control\/\">internal links<\/a> is certainly important, but no man is an island. External links are equally integral in making PageRank, and Google, work. So you&#8217;d better believe Google wants to see outbound links on your site.\n\n<strong>It&#8217;s worth putting in bold: Google judges who you link to, not just who links <em>to<\/em> you.<\/strong>\n\nAs we stated earlier, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/the-art-of-giving-and-receiving-backlinks\/\">backlinks<\/a> pointing toward you are incredibly important, and we&#8217;ll address this in a future blog post. But who you link <em>to<\/em> is almost as important for reasons you might not expect.\n\nThe external links you post won&#8217;t improve your PageRank directly (it will have an indirect impact \u2014 more on that shortly), instead they establish what your content is related to, and what site(s) you see as an authority.\n\nA helpful way to think about it is this: You can&#8217;t control who links to you, but you do control who you link to. Google recognizes this and has learned from it in refining more effective algorithms.\n\nSome of you may remember the good old days of <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Google_bombing\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Google bombing<\/a>, a hilarious prank in which a bunch of people on the internet would get together and link to a page using similar <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/what-is-anchor-text-seo-best-practices-for-links\/\">anchor text<\/a>.\n\nWith enough links pointing at one page, you can boost its ranking immensely, even if it never mentions that phrase. Google has adjusted to prevent this SEO tomfoolery, but it teaches a valuable lesson:\n<blockquote><em>You can&#8217;t learn about a page merely from the pages linking to it.<\/em><\/blockquote>\nPages must be analyzed for all the on-page attributes you can find, and that includes external links. That means you should think about who you&#8217;re linking to as endorsements of sorts. Who are you endorsing?\n\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-8352 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/blogger-tablet.png\" alt=\"woman in a cafe with a cup of coffee and using a tablet\" width=\"800\" height=\"534\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/blogger-tablet.png 800w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/blogger-tablet-441x294.png 441w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/blogger-tablet-768x513.png 768w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/blogger-tablet-689x460.png 689w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/blogger-tablet-735x491.png 735w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/>\n<h2>Be Careful What You Link To<\/h2>\nDon&#8217;t just take it from us. Google&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/support.google.com\/webmasters\/answer\/7451184?hl=en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">SEO Starter Guide<\/a> matter-of-factly says, &#8220;Be careful who you link to.&#8221;\n\nWhat does that mean? With an external link, you&#8217;re giving a vote to that site and its content, and passing your SEO credibility onto it. Implicitly, you&#8217;re saying you trust that site, and so should your readers.\n\nThis leads us to a quandary we&#8217;ve asked ourselves often through the years: If external links pass along PageRank, or &#8220;link juice&#8221; if you will, why link to other websites (competitors, potentially) at all?\n\nIt&#8217;s not a crazy question, but you still should. Here&#8217;s why.\n<h2>External Links Can Directly Help SEO<\/h2>\nGoogle doesn&#8217;t explicitly say that who you link to impacts your SEO, but it&#8217;s the literal foundation of their search algorithm. You can be certain Google wants you to link to other people, and wisely.\n\nThe closest we&#8217;ve seen to direct confirmation was John Mueller&#8217;s answer to a question during #AskGoogleWebmasters. In this Q&amp;A, a user asked if <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=58zaiOx7TM4\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">linking to other websites helps or hurts SEO<\/a>.\n\nJohn responded just as you&#8217;d expect a Google authority to respond, by encouraging linking:\n\n\u201cLinking to other websites is a great way to provide value to your users. Often times, links help users to find out more, to check out your sources and to better understand how your content is relevant to the questions that they have.\u201d\n\nLong story short: Google uses links to determine if content is relevant to the user, which is the entire goal of Google Search. So from this, you can easily infer that linking to other websites is a key SEO factor.\n\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-7559 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/mobile-first-phones.jpg\" alt=\"three women using mobile phones\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/mobile-first-phones.jpg 800w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/mobile-first-phones-441x294.jpg 441w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/mobile-first-phones-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/mobile-first-phones-690x460.jpg 690w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/>\n<h2>Outbound Links Also Help Indirectly<\/h2>\nGetting those backlinks \u2014 links coming inbound, toward your site \u2014 is essential to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/mediavines-seo-resources\/\">SEO<\/a> success, and part of that effort requires being a good linking citizen. No one wants to link to you if you&#8217;re not linking back to the community.\n\nExternal links also often notify people in CMS platforms such as WordPress as a pingback, or trackback.\n\nIf you link to a site, you&#8217;ll be on their radar. Even if they don&#8217;t have these features enabled, other webmasters and content creators are human too. They see who&#8217;s a good participant and who isn&#8217;t, and it matters.\n\nBe a quality citizen and that good link karma \u2014 and PageRank \u2014 will come back around.\n<h2>Who Should You Link To?<\/h2>\nHopefully that novel of an introduction impressed upon you that external links are a valuable SEO tool. But who to link to? The short answer is to always try and link to the best authority on a subject.\n\nFor example, look no further than this <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/category\/seo-like-a-ceo\/\">SEO Like a CEO blog series<\/a>. I link to the ultimate authority, Google itself, whenever possible. But you&#8217;ll also see me linking to other experts. (Thanks, Wikipedia, for the in-depth article on Google bombing.)\n\nAs we touched on briefly before, this may seem counterintuitive. Aren&#8217;t all these outbound links helping other websites? Without question, they are, but they&#8217;re also helping you, the reader.\n\nThink about it: If someone can back up their information with data, quotes resources from Google or other trusted authorities, aren&#8217;t you more likely to trust that person?\n\nThat trust is the pretense for why Google cares who you link to.\n\nThis example, with Google itself as the authority, was admittedly easier than what our lifestyle bloggers may encounter. Nevertheless, in any space there are established experts, even if they aren&#8217;t as well known.\n\nYou know who they are. Link to them. Don&#8217;t worry about anyone &#8220;beating&#8221; you. Think of them as your peers if you plan to be an expert too. Look at external links as endorsements that will pay off in the long run.\n\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-7227 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/keyboard-typing.png\" alt=\"above-view of hands typing on a laptop keyboard\" width=\"800\" height=\"659\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/keyboard-typing.png 800w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/keyboard-typing-364x300.png 364w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/keyboard-typing-768x633.png 768w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/keyboard-typing-558x460.png 558w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/>\n<h2>How Often Should You Externally Link?<\/h2>\nReturning again to our PageRank discussion, your linking authority is divided up amongst all the links in your posts. It&#8217;s incredibly important that you don&#8217;t send away ALL of your PageRank on a given post.\n\nBasically, there is no short answer or simple number we can give you. Instead, the best practice we can encourage is going to be <strong>relative to the number of internal links you have<\/strong>.\n\nI love to see at least 1-2 external links per post as a minimum, hopefully balanced out by significantly more internal links, say, 7-8. In the end, your content is only sending off 10-20 percent of your PageRank to other sites.\n\nThis is overly simplified, of course. Google&#8217;s formula is infinitely more complex and you&#8217;ll have plenty of other internal links in your navigation and site theme, so the outbound percentage will be less in practice.\n\nBut use that as a rule of thumb. Try to include at least 4-5 internal links per external link in your posts. Do this and you&#8217;ll endorse plenty of outside authorities for Google&#8217;s (and the community&#8217;s) liking, without diluting your own PageRank.\n<h2>Should I rel=nofollow External Links?<\/h2>\nAmber has a great blog post specifically about using <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/how-to-use-nofollow\/\">nofollow links<\/a>.\n\nIn summary, you should not use <code>nofollow<\/code> links in the external links you place in your posts unless you really don&#8217;t trust that source (begging the question of why you&#8217;re linking at all, but there are unusual cases) or unless you have been paid.\n\nI strongly recommend using <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/when-to-use-no-follow\/\">nofollow links<\/a> <em>only<\/em> in the situations Amber discusses, otherwise you&#8217;ll lose the advantages we&#8217;ve described here; nofollow means you don&#8217;t trust a site \u2013 the opposite of what we&#8217;re going for with external links.\n\nIf you weren&#8217;t paid or aren&#8217;t talking about something negatively, you should always leave your links as <code>follow<\/code>, the default setting.\n<h2>TL;DR? External Links = Good!<\/h2>\nDon&#8217;t think of external links as a negative. They establish trust in your site, help you get incoming links and even help Google figure out what your content is about. Go forth and use them!\n\n<em>Our next posts in this series are all about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/what-is-a-keyword\/\">keywords<\/a>, where we go into detail with explanations of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/long-tail-keywords\/\">longtail keyword<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/keyword-prominence\/\">keyword prominence<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/keyword-density\/\">keyword density<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/keyword-proximity\/\">keyword proximity<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/keyword-research\/\">keyword research<\/a>. Don&#8217;t miss them!&nbsp;<\/em><\/section>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<section class=\"wp-block-group has-global-padding is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\" style=\"margin-top:0\">\r\n<div class=\"wp-block-group has-global-padding is-layout-constrained wp-container-core-group-is-layout-09aec4f2 wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\" style=\"margin-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--40);padding-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--50);padding-right:0;padding-bottom:var(--wp--preset--spacing--60)\">\r\n<p class=\"is-style-small is-style-small--3\">About the author<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"margin-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--20);\" class=\"wp-block-post-author\"><div class=\"wp-block-post-author__avatar\"><img alt='' src='https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/152dc08941c75895b80ffc4d0f79236a870658434ec66e25f227ffe962e70114?s=96&#038;d=blank&#038;r=g' srcset='https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/152dc08941c75895b80ffc4d0f79236a870658434ec66e25f227ffe962e70114?s=192&#038;d=blank&#038;r=g 2x' class='avatar avatar-96 photo' height='96' width='96' \/><\/div><div class=\"wp-block-post-author__content\"><p class=\"wp-block-post-author__name\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/blog\/author\/eric\/\" target=\"_self\">Eric Hochberger<\/a><\/p><p class=\"wp-block-post-author__bio\"><\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<div class=\"wp-block-group has-global-padding is-layout-constrained wp-container-core-group-is-layout-7c04bf6b wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\" style=\"margin-top:0\">\r\n<p class=\"is-style-small is-style-small--4\">Share this page<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<ul class=\"wp-block-outermost-social-sharing has-normal-icon-size has-icon-color is-style-logos-only is-content-justification-left is-layout-flex wp-container-outermost-social-sharing-is-layout-9d3a6402 wp-block-social-sharing-is-layout-flex\" 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z\"><\/path><\/svg>\t\t<span class=\"wp-block-outermost-social-sharing-link-label screen-reader-text\">\n\t\t\tShare on WhatsApp\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/a>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/section>\r\n<\/article>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<aside class=\"wp-block-group aligngrid  is-animated-on-scroll-25 tribe-animation-type-fade-in tribe-animation-direction-bottom is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow\" style=\"margin-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--40);margin-bottom:0;padding-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--60);padding-bottom:var(--wp--preset--spacing--50);--tribe-animation-speed:0.6s;--tribe-animation-offset:50px;--tribe-animation-delay:0s;--tribe-animation-easing:var(--easing--ease-out-sine)\">\r\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading is-style-small is-style-small--5\" id=\"h-related-posts\" style=\"margin-top:0;margin-bottom:var(--wp--preset--spacing--40)\">Related Posts<\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"margin-bottom:0;\" class=\"b-related-posts b-related-posts--layout-grid  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https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/AdobeStock_443672686-2048x1163.jpeg 2048w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/AdobeStock_443672686-1170x664.jpeg 1170w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/AdobeStock_443672686-375x213.jpeg 375w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/AdobeStock_443672686-800x454.jpeg 800w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/AdobeStock_443672686-569x323.jpeg 569w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/AdobeStock_443672686-353x200.jpeg 353w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/AdobeStock_443672686-288x164.jpeg 288w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/AdobeStock_443672686-335x190.jpeg 335w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/AdobeStock_443672686-347x197.jpeg 347w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/AdobeStock_443672686-520x295.jpeg 520w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/AdobeStock_443672686-640x363.jpeg 640w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/AdobeStock_443672686-960x545.jpeg 960w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/AdobeStock_443672686-1080x613.jpeg 1080w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/>\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"c-post-card__content\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"c-post-card__primary-category t-category\">SEO<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"c-post-card__title t-display-xx-small t-transparent-underline\">Should I Republish Content? There&#8217;s a Better Way<\/h3>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"c-post-card__metadata\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"c-post-card__metadata-author t-body-small\">Eric Hochberger<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"c-post-card__metadata-separator t-body-small\">\u2022<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"c-post-card__metadata-date t-body-small\">Oct 21, 2021<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"c-post-card__excerpt\">Back to Blog \u2022 Whether it&#8217;s for SEO or monetization purposes, we always encourage publishers to update old content. We&#8217;ve discussed at length how specifically to update content to improve RPM and optimize for SEO, but today we\u2019re focusing on a specific and surprisingly controversial aspect. How to handle the modified and published date may&#8230;<\/p>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/blog\/should-i-republish-content-theres-a-better-way\/\" class=\"c-post-card__link-overlay\" aria-label=\"Read more about Should I Republish Content? There&#8217;s a Better Way\"><\/a>\n<\/article>\n\t\t\t\t\t<article class=\"c-post-card c-post-card__layout-vertical\">\n\t<div class=\"c-post-card__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"c-post-card__image aspect-ratio-cover aspect-ratio-3-2\">\n\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"682\" src=\"https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/SEO-Like-a-Slab-of-Beef-04-1024x682.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large\" alt=\"man standing up using a desktop computer\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/SEO-Like-a-Slab-of-Beef-04-1024x682.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/SEO-Like-a-Slab-of-Beef-04-320x213.jpg 320w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/SEO-Like-a-Slab-of-Beef-04-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/SEO-Like-a-Slab-of-Beef-04-1536x1023.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/SEO-Like-a-Slab-of-Beef-04-2048x1364.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/SEO-Like-a-Slab-of-Beef-04-1170x779.jpg 1170w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/SEO-Like-a-Slab-of-Beef-04-375x250.jpg 375w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/SEO-Like-a-Slab-of-Beef-04-800x533.jpg 800w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/SEO-Like-a-Slab-of-Beef-04-555x370.jpg 555w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/SEO-Like-a-Slab-of-Beef-04-344x229.jpg 344w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/SEO-Like-a-Slab-of-Beef-04-281x187.jpg 281w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/SEO-Like-a-Slab-of-Beef-04-335x223.jpg 335w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/SEO-Like-a-Slab-of-Beef-04-347x231.jpg 347w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/SEO-Like-a-Slab-of-Beef-04-520x346.jpg 520w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/SEO-Like-a-Slab-of-Beef-04-640x426.jpg 640w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/SEO-Like-a-Slab-of-Beef-04-960x640.jpg 960w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/SEO-Like-a-Slab-of-Beef-04-1080x719.jpg 1080w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/>\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"c-post-card__content\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"c-post-card__primary-category t-category\">Mediavine<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"c-post-card__title t-display-xx-small t-transparent-underline\">SEO is a Garden a.k.a. The Parboil Strikes Back<\/h3>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"c-post-card__metadata\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"c-post-card__metadata-author t-body-small\">Eric Hochberger<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"c-post-card__metadata-separator t-body-small\">\u2022<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"c-post-card__metadata-date t-body-small\">Oct 11, 2021<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"c-post-card__excerpt\">Back to Blog \u2022 Today on the Mediavine blog, we&#8217;re throwing it back to 2017, famously known to SEO experts across the web as the Year of the Parboil. It was never actually known as such, of course, but an experiment from back then remains instructive and shapes our SEO strategies today. A blog post&#8230;<\/p>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/blog\/seo-is-a-garden\/\" class=\"c-post-card__link-overlay\" aria-label=\"Read more about SEO is a Garden a.k.a. The Parboil Strikes Back\"><\/a>\n<\/article>\n\t\t\t\t\t<article class=\"c-post-card c-post-card__layout-vertical\">\n\t<div class=\"c-post-card__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"c-post-card__image aspect-ratio-cover aspect-ratio-3-2\">\n\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" src=\"https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/woman-looking-at-her-laptop-sitting-on-the-couch.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large\" alt=\"woman looking at her laptop sitting on the couch\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/woman-looking-at-her-laptop-sitting-on-the-couch.jpg 800w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/woman-looking-at-her-laptop-sitting-on-the-couch-320x213.jpg 320w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/woman-looking-at-her-laptop-sitting-on-the-couch-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/woman-looking-at-her-laptop-sitting-on-the-couch-375x250.jpg 375w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/woman-looking-at-her-laptop-sitting-on-the-couch-555x370.jpg 555w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/woman-looking-at-her-laptop-sitting-on-the-couch-344x229.jpg 344w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/woman-looking-at-her-laptop-sitting-on-the-couch-281x187.jpg 281w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/woman-looking-at-her-laptop-sitting-on-the-couch-335x223.jpg 335w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/woman-looking-at-her-laptop-sitting-on-the-couch-347x231.jpg 347w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/woman-looking-at-her-laptop-sitting-on-the-couch-520x346.jpg 520w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/woman-looking-at-her-laptop-sitting-on-the-couch-640x426.jpg 640w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/>\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"c-post-card__content\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"c-post-card__primary-category t-category\">SEO<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"c-post-card__title t-display-xx-small t-transparent-underline\">Should You Delete Content or Just Stop Linking? An SEO Dilemma<\/h3>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"c-post-card__metadata-readtime\">8 minutes<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"c-post-card__metadata\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"c-post-card__metadata-author t-body-small\">Eric Hochberger<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"c-post-card__metadata-separator t-body-small\">\u2022<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"c-post-card__metadata-date t-body-small\">Jul 13, 2021<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"c-post-card__excerpt\">Back to Blog \u2022 If you&#8217;re a new blogger, bookmark this and come back in a few years. But if you&#8217;ve been blogging for awhile, you may have already asked yourself this SEO question: Should you delete content that&#8217;s old and\/or not doing a lot for you? Looking for a quick answer? Sorry. We&#8217;re going&#8230;<\/p>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/blog\/should-you-delete-content-or-just-stop-linking\/\" class=\"c-post-card__link-overlay\" aria-label=\"Read more about Should You Delete Content or Just Stop Linking? An SEO Dilemma\"><\/a>\n<\/article>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/aside>\r\n<\/div>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Back to Blog \u2022 In today&#8217;s edition of the Mediavine SEO series, we&#8217;re going to delve into the role of the external link. What is an external link? It&#8217;s exactly what you think it is \u2014 an outbound link from your web page that points to a third-party site, or a different domain or sub-domain&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":8701,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_searchwp_excluded":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17,93],"tags":[],"audience_post":[],"class_list":["post-16243","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-seo","category-seo-like-a-ceo"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.1 (Yoast SEO v27.1.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>External Links: How Outbound Links HELP Your SEO, Directly and Indirectly - Mediavine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"External links are outbound to other sites, and they can have as much impact on your site&#039;s SEO and rankings as the sites linking to you.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/blog\/external-links\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"External Links: How Outbound Links HELP Your SEO, Directly and Indirectly\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"External links are outbound to other sites, and they can have as much impact on your site&#039;s SEO and rankings as the sites linking to you.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/blog\/external-links\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Mediavine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/mediavinepublishernetwork\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-02-17T18:34:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-09-01T16:12:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/video-blogger.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"675\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Eric Hochberger\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@mediavine\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@mediavine\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Eric Hochberger\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"7 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/blog\/external-links\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/blog\/external-links\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Eric Hochberger\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/#\/schema\/person\/ebd6f771035eb5c34fc588d95c5322bb\"},\"headline\":\"External Links: How Outbound Links HELP Your SEO, Directly and Indirectly\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-02-17T18:34:45+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-09-01T16:12:38+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/blog\/external-links\/\"},\"wordCount\":1520,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/blog\/external-links\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/video-blogger.png\",\"articleSection\":[\"SEO\",\"SEO Like A CEO\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/blog\/external-links\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/blog\/external-links\/\",\"name\":\"External Links: How Outbound Links HELP Your SEO, Directly and Indirectly - 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