A recent article at SEOchat has quite a bit to say about how linking OUT from your website isn’t always a bad idea. Of all the things that this article had to say, I find the following quote to be the best piece of advice that any SEM professional should adhere to as a rule.

“In natural, organic SEO strategies, people should still be focusing first on what their audience wants, then secondarily upon what the search engines are looking for.”

We need to remember that what the search engines are trying to do is find the sites that provide the information that the visitor is looking for. This is the primary goal of every search engine, across the board. When you create a web page that visitors want to read, you are giving them exactly what they need, and the search engines appreciate that.

The article goes on to explain how reciprocal linking is actually beneficial, and that one-way links are not always the best way.

“While in certain situations, this statement may hold a kernel of truth, overall, generalities such as this get our thinking skewed. The whole purpose of reciprocal linking is to share traffic, create resources for visitors, and promote a sense of connectivity to the Web.”

I agree with this as well. Having solid outbound links to respoected, relevant sites will only help your visitors find more of what they are looking for. Refer back to the first quote on why this is a good thing.

Take the time if you like to read the whole article. I found it interesting and overall full of good information on the philosophy of link building for search engine optimization.

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