Can I legally link to any website I want and it will help me to rank higher?

Butterfly07 · Aug 19, 2010

Hi all

Say for example I I sell online my supplier is Gucci and I sell their watches. I have been advised to link to the Gucci website on the basis google will think my website should be trusted because Gucci website is trustworthy.

Can I legally do this- just link with any site? Is it ok if its my supplier website? Do I need to seek permisson?

Please help me understand How will this make google think I am trustworthy and rank higher? and is there any point of I get no link back?

Many thanks

maxh · Aug 19, 2010

Inbound links are worth far far more than outbound links.

Anyone can link to whoever they want, there are no legal implications for linking out. However if you say your watches are gucci and they're not then perhaps gucci would have a case.

But no, you're fine.

Google likes to see a good number of links in and out from authority websites. If you place a couple of authority links on your site that will make that page look better.

It will also add relevance.

paulus · Aug 19, 2010

You can link to any site you want. Outbound links don't help you rank (although the anchor text is part of the content, and the content does get assessed). You are better off just linking to sites that you think will benefit your visitors.

MASSEY · Aug 19, 2010

i think linking out to sites helps search engines establish what your site is about.

It is actually supposed to help according to the a few seo'ers on here. But it has problems that are probably more harm than good.

Butterfly07 · Aug 19, 2010

It is actually supposed to help according to the a few seo'ers on here. But it has problems that are probably more harm than good

Really? What problems can it cause?

I, Brian · Aug 19, 2010

a) you don't need permission
b) Likelihood is that one Gucci link will not make you rank higher
c) under the right circumstances, it may work though

What people are getting confused about is the idea that if they links to strong websites, Google will therefore rank their website (or, technically, page) higher.

But this really misunderstands the "authorities and hubs" element of previous Google patents.

In short, if a website already has a degree of trust, and links to lots of useful on-topic pages, then it may qualify as a "hub" and thus gain special attention from Google.

Think about University pages linking to other useful reference pages as an example of a "hub".

For many general SME websites, though, they are unlikely to qualify as hubs unless they are predominantly set up in this manner.

All in my opinion.

eventdomain · Aug 19, 2010

Pretty much spot on Brian, although I never saw universities as a hub myself.

I link to just about every university there is, and their sites are mostly about their own activities eg: students, educational options, course finder, campus pages etc - but not really anything outside of what they do. Maybe the odd reference links page, but nada really.

Yet they do seem to carry much weight, big pagerank (kent uni has a PR of 8!) almost as if they are authorities, except they aren't hubs to external information - very weird :|

Maybe they get an insane amount of links to them? Whatever they got, I want some

Srivvy · Aug 20, 2010

You'll probably get little or no benefit directly from linking out to other websites.

However, if by linking to other sites you make your site a useful resource because people can use it to find relevant info, then other sites may link to you because of this.

These new links TO your site would then improve your rankings.

herodigital · Aug 20, 2010

Linking is fine but I wouldn't take it any further than that. For example, you don't want to go overboard with Gucci copy and logos for two reasons:

- you don't want to outrank Gucci for any of their keyphrases (unlikely but possible)
- you don't want users thinking you ARE Gucci

Linking to them might establish a bond that Google and users may recognise but I doubt it will give you any extra credit, in real and SEO terms.

davek17 · Aug 20, 2010

Hi Butterfly

The only time an outbound link will hurt you (if at all) is if it is totally irrelevant. You do still get people who think that linking their Shoe website to bbc.co.uk and google.com will help them!! In your case it will be fine and legally Gucci can't stop you and wouldn't want to anyway as you're helping their SEO too.

We link to all sorts of valuable resources in our blog and ecommerce site. Why wouldn't we link to the manufacturer site of a product or a genuinely useful blog or news article? Keep egnuine, be honest and be careful when you try new things with SEO and you'll be fine. It has definitely helped our rankings over time, however how much is down to this is hard to measure. Brian is absolutely right about the "Hub" scenario though.

Good Luck!

Dave

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Can I legally link to any website I want and it will help me to rank higher?

Butterfly07

maxh

paulus

MASSEY

Butterfly07

I, Brian

eventdomain

Srivvy

herodigital

davek17

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