Here is a question that a blog owner asked me recently:

“It’s great that we are able to post free reprint articles onto our websites, but surely this is just an opportunity for publishers of blog to hand out links? Correct me if I’m wrong, but doesn’t linking out hurt our SEO?”

Thanks so much for asking that question.

Your online article submissions will offer one or two links to web pages that cover topics related to your niche. So, the first thing to keep in mind is that these are relevant links that you’re giving out.

One of the main reasons that blogs do so well search engine wise is because they will often link out to other relevant pages, increasing the value of your blog in Google’s eyes and your visitor’s eyes as well.

Consider this—when a viewer sees a page from your website in Google’s results list, they will click the link to your website, and they’ll attempt to evaluate as fast as possible if your site has information that they can use.

One way Google will determine how useful a particular page is to a searcher is to measure how long it is before they return to search or try a different result from the list.

If your site is lacking in valuable info, then the searcher will return quickly to Google. The searcher can just hit the “back” button and go back to the results list and try again.

However, if this searcher lands at your site and sees content that’s helpful to him, and then there are some links (links from the free reprint articles) that lead him on to additional helpful content, he’s not returning to Google very quickly.

Google takes this info and uses it to help measure the usefulness of your web page to people searching for a particular search term. This info can then have a real impact on how your site is ranked when people search for that particular phrase.

In determining where a web page will rank, Google wants to see how much value visitors recieve when they click through to your website from a results page, as well as your page’s relevancy to the search term.

So, linking out to other relevant pages will provide additional value to your readers and help your SEO.

When you are considering what type of content to put on your website, think hard about the needs and interests of your readers right from the outset. Think about it this way, your readers are Google’s customers. Keep them happy and you keep Google happy. Linking out is not something that you need to be afraid of. If you do it correctly, you can actually improve your search engine ranking.

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