John Mueller, a Google search advocate, has thrown cold water on one of the most enduring SEO beliefs: that outbound links impact SEO.

Websites commonly link to high-traffic, authoritative websites in an effort to boost their own search engine rankings. In response to a question on Reddit about the practice, Mueller set the record straight, saying it was one long-running myth:

Nothing happens. Why should it? This has been one of those things that SEOs have claimed / hoped since literally decades.

“Here’s my affiliate site about handbags – and here’s a link to CNN & Wikipedia, please take me seriously now, k?”

Treat links like content. Does this link provide additional, unique value to users? Then link naturally. Is this link irrelevant to my users? Then don’t link to it. Name-dropping a dictionary doesn’t fix your spelling mistakes.

When one person asked why Google had not done more to dispel this myth, Mueller said it was a well-established fact, and that many people would not believe specifically because Google said it:

I think we’ve said this since forever. It was a myth in the early 2000’s. It’s not like people will blow up the internet if they link to CNN or Wikipedia or Apple too often, so on the list of myths that need to be dispelled, it’s pretty far down. And of course, the more Google says it’s not so, the more people believe it must be true.

#WikipediaConspiracy #DontTellMeHowToLink #EEATmoreLinks #HashtagsOnRedditAreUselessButFun

Needless to say, the “revelation” will likely cause many site admins to rethink some of their practices.