In April 2016 Google began penalizing websites for outbound links. This was primarily used for fashion bloggers and bloggers who review products. Here’s what the penalty notification looks like, as displayed in Google Search Console:
screenshot of the outbound link penalty
The writing was on the wall for those who pay attention to what Google says. Unfortunately, many bloggers simply “advertise” on their websites by providing a link to business’s products or services in exchange for a product or a payment.
If you are familiar with Google, you know that they hate it when people sell links. Of course, this is their #1 stream of revenue, and it is only ok for them. 🙂
In the world of personal injury, there are many PI sites which have a little “resources” page on them. On many of these pages are links to other law firms. Could Google use their existing technology to locate these little link schemes and penalize personal injury lawyers? Probably. Will they? Who knows. Right now I am leaning towards “no”.
If you have noticed a decrease in traffic and think you have been penalized please feel free to contact us today. For more information on penalties, please visit our page dedicated to penalty removal for personal injury lawyers.
Should we remove doubtful outbound links from the site or to nofollow it?
I am a huge fan of linking out to others. It was how the “web” was designed to work. However, only link to things which enhance your content.
In other cases, it is best to simply not link. For example, your comment had a link to a random, unrelated website which I removed. 🙂