What are outbound links and why are they important for SEO?

Why would you want to check outbound links?

It is important to check your outbound links regularly. This is because links can become obsolete over time. The linked pages disappear or get redirected to irrelevant content. In those cases, you suffer from broken links ... and you don't want that.

Broken links: bad for your website's user experience and reputation

Broken links, also called broken links, are links that link to a non-existent page. This could be because a typo was made on your website's side, for example, or the page has since been removed. These links not only provide a poor user experience, but can also negatively affect your rankings. Moreover, some links can suddenly lead to unreliable or poorly performing websites, which in turn is not good for your website's reputation.

So check your outbound links regularly and keep referring to relevant, active and reliable sources for better SEO.

How do you map all the outbound links on your domain with Screaming Frog?

One of the best ways to map all the outbound links on your website is to use the SEO tool Screaming Frog. Follow these simple steps to create a printout of all your outbound links:

1. Download and install Screaming Frog: If you don't already have this tool, you can download the free version. The free version crawls up to 500 URLs. That's usually enough for smaller Web sites.

2. Crawl your website: Open Screaming Frog and enter your website's URL. Then click the "Start" button to start the crawl.

3. Filter on outbound links: Once the crawl is complete, go to the "External" tab. Here you will see a list of all outgoing links on your domain.

4. Export the data: Click the export icon to generate a CSV file of all outbound links. In this file, you will find all external URLs, along with details such as the status codes and anchor texts of the links.

With these simple steps, you'll quickly have an overview of all the outbound links on your website, which you can use to fix any problems and optimize your SEO strategy.

How do you map all the outbound links on your domain with SEMrush?

If you use a tool like SEMrush for your SEO, you can also quickly and efficiently analyze all your outbound links. This is how you create an overview of your outbound links in SEMrush:

1. Open SEMrush and go to Backlink Analytics: Enter your domain and click "Analyze. Then you can go to the "Outbound Domains" tab.

2. View outbound links: This tab shows a list of all the domains your website links to, along with details such as the number of links and the authority score of each domain.

3. Export the data: Click on the export option to generate a CSV file of all outbound links. This file contains valuable information about the linked websites, including the URLs and other relevant data.

4. Check for broken links: Use SEMrush's Site Audit tool to check for broken outbound links. This will highlight any problems with external links so you can fix them.

Now you have a clear picture of your outbound links and can effectively address problems such as broken links. The advantage of SEMrush over Screaming Frog is that you can see per page what outbound links there are and what the authority score is per domain.

Alternative tools to check outbound links

In addition to these two tools, there are other tools available to map your outbound links:

• Ahrefs: This is a popular tool that provides comprehensive reports on your outbound links. Ahrefs not only shows the links themselves, but also provides insight into the quality of the linked pages, so you can see if they are still relevant and reliable.
• SEObility: This tool offers a free version that allows you to check one Web site. SEObility not only shows broken outbound links, but also shows other SEO errors.
• Sitechecker.pro: This Sitechecker.pro lets you scan an entire Web site up to 250 pages and generate reports of all outbound links, including broken links and their status. The tool also has a handy Chrome extension for scanning individual pages. Sitechecker.pro has a 14-day free trial.
• SEO Minion: SEO Minion is a handy Google Chrome extension that you can activate on a page so that all links on a page are highlighted.The extension highlights both internal and external links and tracks broken links by showing different statuses of the links.
• Linkilo: Especially useful for WordPress websites, this tool provides detailed reports of all your outbound links. It has a user-friendly interface and the ability to edit links in bulk.

When choosing the right tool, there is no right or wrong. Each tool has its own advantages, depending on your needs and the size of your website (or your budget, of course). Use at least one or more of these tools to ensure the quality of your outbound links to improve your SEO performance.

Optimization and maintenance of your outbound links

Have you mapped out your outbound links? Then it's time to maintain them properly. In doing so, you pay particular attention to two things: broken links and links to low-quality sites.

Tracking and fixing outbound broken links

You can figure out broken links by looking at HTTP errors such as 403, 404 and 405. Make sure you fix broken links by removing them or replacing them with relevant alternatives.

Resolve outbound links to low-quality sites

Links to lower-quality websites are often not best for your own search engine optimization. To avoid these links, you can use the Authority Score (AS) shown by tools such as Ahrefs and SEMrush. This score ranges from 0 to 100 and indicates how reliable and credible a website is.

With a low score, it is wise to check if the domain is really relevant and reliable. If it is not, you can replace the link with a link to another relevant page.

Do an SEO scan today!

Outbound links are an important part of a solid SEO strategy. By linking to relevant and reliable sources, you improve the credibility of your website, both for users and search engines. Regularly checking and optimizing these links is essential to ensure a good user experience and improve your SEO results.

Want to know how your website is performing in terms of outbound links? Start an SEO audit today and find out how to optimize your linking strategy. Need help with this? Request a free SEO scan. We will be happy to check what issues your website has!