Incoming and Outgoing Links

Have you ever wondered about what the actual importance of links is, and how you should proceed when you want to create outgoing links? What about incoming links?

Would you always be interested in being linked to from any site? And if not, WHY not?

Don’t THINK you know the answer to these questions, but read on to learn more about both

  • Incoming Links and
  • Outgoing Links

Incoming Links

Incoming links are links coming towards your site pointing from somewhere on the internet. Here is one of the very few areas where Google isn’t your best choice of search engine. Understand: I prefer the Google search engine for many tasks, but when it comes to issuing the command “link:www.sitename.dk” you will find a big difference between doing so in the Google search engine compared with for example Yahoo. When I checked with our family domain name in both search engines it only gave me two results (and said many had been left out) whereas Yahoo came up with 460+ results straight away.

Sorry, guys, you can’t be the best at everything, but the Google team IS doing a mighty fine job otherwise. However, on this blog we are concerned with showing the best way to master your WordPress blogging software.  If and when the situation changes, or I discover that a third engine works even better, I will keep you posted in the comments field. 🙂

Incoming links will usually be considered a sign of trustworthiness from someone else. You don’t usually link to things that would be of a poor quality. Unless, of course, you’re dealing with a trashy site that only uses outgoing links and has no incoming links. Such sites were previously disguised as “portals” but quickly loose the value of page linking that other sites would normally have.

Incoming links can be good if they enhance the value of your site, but you must be careful. Some people have created sites that purely rely upon delivering content through RSS-feeds. You end up with your quality content being shown on a site where the site owner doesn’t do any real work in either designing, commenting, writting, reviewing or doing anything other than adding your site to his feed – thus creating an impression that you (the original writer) endorse his or her site.

I strongly recommend you contact webmasters of such sites and ask to be removed. Not only will your content end up being duplicated but you could end up creating the wrong impression among visitors.

A practical example: you write a Republican blog and suddenly a liberal portal grabs one of your articles judging by the heading or that you have just once voiced a critical opinion against the Republican party. Being listed on a leftist site could cause you to loose some of your credibility among some users. Avoid that by staying alert to how your content is being used. After all, you should consider that you do spend a considerable amount of time writting the content so why make an effort if others abuse your good intentions?

Outgoing Links

Again, the same care as you would place in checking who links to you (incoming links), so you should be mindful of what sites whom you link to are doing. Let’s say one of your good friends looses a site you link to. The site is taken over by people who suddenly offer swimsuit photos. Nothing wrong with swimsuits per se, but suddenly the site you link to goes a step further and even links to pornographic banners to earn an extra income.

What happens to your credibility when Aunt Rosie wants to visit the rosary theme blog and suddenly finds a site with swimsuits? Family is one thing. Business could be detrimental if you were running a business site.

So stay mindful of what sites you link to do with their sites.

How Often Should I check this information?

That is a very good question. Regularly depends upon the popularity of your site. You get a certain ability to see sites you have already checked. What you should perhaps be most mindful of are those sites where you protest to webmasters and admins. Keep close control as to whether they continue to link to you and make sure your online credibility is always maintained.

As always, questions in comments. You are welcome to leave any feedback that comes to mind.

Have a good sunday. 🙂

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