“A website without any inbound or outbound links may as well be an unreachable island, floating in the middle of the ocean.”
Be it a personal blog or commercial website, the goal is to establish an online presence, a feat that can only be achieved when people become aware that the website or blog exists. There are several ways to improve a website’s online presence. One of the most effective ways is telling the search engine that you have something valuable to share with the world. In many cases, the search engine will automatically rank your website. But we live in a digital world, where at least 252,000 websites are created every day.
Despite its agility, it takes search engines some time to index the content published on all the new websites. So, it is always prudent to request indexing, which tells google to prioritize your website. Apart from organic rankings on google, you can also influence your ranking by sharing and earning authentic links. One of the most effective ways to exposure is to focus on your website’s link-building efforts. In order to create a link-building strategy, you need to understand the basics, including the meaning of inbound and outbound links and if there are any differences between the two.
What Are Inbound And Outbound Links In Seo?
What is Inbound link
Inbound links are all links that point from another website toward your website. Inbound links, also known as backlinks, are a very important search engine ranking factor, especially for Google.
In simple terms, when a website shares a link of a web page existing on your website within their website content. It results in the creation of an inbound link for you. The links are more valuable if the domain that links has higher authority. These links are referred to as high-quality links and are the ones that hold the most sway with search engines.
It means that when content published on high-quality websites includes a link pointing to your website, your website also receives an authority boost and improved page rank. This happens only if the referring website hasn’t added the nofollow tag in the hyperlink.
We used the Ahrefs backlink checker to find backlinks for Encyclopedia.com.
We will use this as an example throughout this guide.
Here’s the backlink profile:
According to this data, encyclopedia.com has 1,529,96 inbound links pointing towards it. The results obtained from the backlink checker also give us a list of referring pages and the link they are pointing towards.
In the following screenshot, you’ll observe that encyclopedia.com has backlinks from refdesk.com.
Clicking on the link got us a Live example of an Inbound link for Encyclopedia.com, which can be seen in the following screenshot:
Read more here about content optimization and how it will impact your SEO
What is Outbound link
Outbound links are all the links on your website that point toward other websites or webpages. It may seem that outbound links do not directly influence search engine rankings, but that’s not the case. On the contrary, Inbound and outbound links work together to influence the rankings of both web pages.
In simple terms, when you share a link to other websites or web pages on your website, you create an outbound link. They are often also known as external links pointing towards websites other than the ones they exist on. Linking to high-quality websites tells search engines that the content published on your website is backed by research.
It’s not just google that’s impressed with the quality outbound link. By sharing links to authoritative websites, you provide additional solutions to your readers, telling them that you value them. This improves your website’s trust score and results in returning customers.
Inbound links vs outbound links: The Differences
Takeaway:
Both Inbound and Outbound links are essential for a website’s ranking. However, Inbound links hold the most sway when it comes to search engines. As we have seen, they are an integral part of how search engines rank a website for relevant queries.
If you have any query regarding your website performance, feel free to get in touch with us.
