We’ll start with defining what an external website link is. To that end, an external website link is a hyperlink that directs to any other domain than the one that exists on the source. In other words, if there is another website that links to your website, then, we would be talking about an external link to your website. Likewise, if you were to link to another website, that would also be considered an external link
The Importance of External Website Links
But what it is about external website links that makes them important? For one thing, external website links have a more significant impact on search engine rankings than internal links. That’s because they are regarded as external votes of popularity or confidence. That is not all, though. Supposedly, the quality and the source of the external links are just as important when it comes to ranking power.
Essentially, prominent search engines rely on an array of metrics for establishing the value of external website links. Some aspects worth mentioning include the popularity and position of the linking page, the reliability of the linking domain, the way in which the target page is connected with the source page, and the anchor text.
On that note, tracking the number of external links to your website is a good practice. At the same time, many businesses compare their number of external links with their competitors. This is especially critical for companies that rely on inbound web traffic for producing profit.
What Practices Should You Consider Implementing?
If you want your website to get a high ranking in the search engine, then, you should consider implementing or adjusting your strategies. Nevertheless, you should also reckon that there are certain limitations, as well. In fact, external links are amongst the most challenging metrics to manipulate. Even
so, some tactics have been proven to go a long way.
Most importantly, you should make a priority out of making your website trustworthy. The question is: how do you ensure that your website is perceived as trustworthy?
In this respect, note that getting links from sources with deep-rooted trust – such as government or university pages – is a notable endorsement.
Moreover, ideally, the external link should be a popular page on the internet. Usually, the most reliable websites choose to link to popular pages. But that doesn’t mean you should simply include links that don’t have anything to do with your content, just because. As we’ve pointed beforehand, the relevance factor is just as critical. In plain English, the type of content present on the two pages – target and source page, should be similar. When using a link, it should direct to similar content. This enables the search engine to determine the knowledge hubs of the internet, when validating web documents. As for the anchor text used, it should be reflective of the content, as well.
We hope that our article convinced you of the importance of tracking your website external links. If you didn’t do this beforehand, then, you might consider using various marketing KIPs for expanding your business’ horizons.