Many marketers are reluctant to “share” their hard gained PageRank with other topic related websites, through outbound links. Excluding competitive reasons, their concerns are summed up in these two:

1. bleeding to much PR that there isn’t sufficient left to fuel their internal linking campaign; for muting the monkeys which preach PageRank bankruptcy by outbound linking, I suggest reading this article on DailyBlogTips.com on how linking out will NOT reduce the Google PageRank of your pages.

2. linking out to related websites will often times determine massive returns of favour from the linked to webmasters, thus clouding your link network with a tone of reciprocal links that, makes Google believe it’s witnessing blackhat SEO in action.

This should not be a problem when referencing relevant information sources that blend naturally with your page content. Reciprocal links can raise suspicions when the off page optimization process lacks in diversity and it is performed by cooperating with poor quality/shady linking partners.

When everything fails, just keep it relevant and your reciprocal links will not cause you any tensions with Google.

Remember that Google doesn’t discount reciprocal links or worse, penalize your rankings, as some webmasters presume, but still it keeps its reserves when evaluating these relations. The best method for building reciprocal links is by article exchange and always throughout the text body. Avoid building so-called resource pages where you stuck a bunch of links to partner sites.

What you’ll benefit from linking out to niche related websites

1. building authority in your niche market with Google and other SEs when prospects are constantly stumbling upon links that point back to your web pages;

2. leveraging the market’s content stock so that you’re able to build comprehensive informational web pages;

3. as some search engines take into account outbound linking as an algorithm factor, your website will receive ranking benefit; keep in mind that the web is all about connecting and practicing proper outbound linking will gain you a more natural feel in the search engine’s eyes;

4. becoming the useful content provider; you’ll be associated with a source of good information every time you reference related or complementary pieces of content through an outbound link imbedded in articles/posts;

5. giving exposure for other marketers will render you even greater exposure in the long run, as the majority will be inclined to return the favor; in addition to increasing the number of reciprocal links, you’ll receive more advertising through social platforms, like blogs, forums, and bookmarking sites.

Now, how can you make outbound links a section in your content management strategy.

Here are some generic information sources you should link out to

• blog posts in theme related blogs;

• Wikipedia articles;

• Referential articles for your niche;

• Content you find extremely useful for your market but not covered on your website;

• dot.edu or dot.org websites (building a relationship with these kind of websites is very SEO beneficial);

• subjects that spark controversy in the niche market community;

• niche or general directories like Yahoo Directory, DMOZ, Best of the Web, Gimpsy and Search Sight;

• non-competitive websites that are already ranking well in the SERPs for the keywords your targeting;

• authority websites in your niche or the next largest niche you’re a part of;

You might ask: “Is it imperative to create outbound links?”. My answer is no, but if you intend to build a brand in your target market you can’t possibly be doing this by isolating your website in a web corner and hope the community will put you on a pedestal. So, practice outbound linking!

Read How Effective Are Outbound Links as SEOmoz member, SEO Wizz recalls an experience had while analyzing a six months old fishing website.