Outgoing links - internal vs. external

[EugeneF]

I thought that the important factor in the value of a link was how many outing links a page has total.  Some tools seems to tell me that the important data point is how many EXTERNAL links a page has.   Which number should I be paying attention to when looking at pages I want to get linked from?

(Yes, I know there are many other factors that are important)

[netamorphosis]

Hi Maxwell!

Great insight -- One question: Is there any benefit in aggregating/cleaning up outbound links on your site? Recently, I have discovered that Moz recommended 'cleaning up' outbound links on one of my sites in my campaigns. I wasn't aware there was a way to do this. Do you have any insight? Perhaps there is an FAQ on Moz even?

[EugeneF]

My understanding is that a link from a page with 100 links is worth 1/10th the value of a link from a page with only 10 links.   Link "juice" is diluted.  Some tools seem to indicate that the total number of links going to other domains is important.  I didn't think that was important.  My understanding is that it is the total number of links as more links will dilute the power of the link.

[AmericanOutlets]

OK. Just to be clear, you are wondering which type of outgoing link makes a site more valuable as an external link source for your own site, right?

Again, I would look at metrics like authority before number of internal and external links, as those have a much greater influence on the amount of link juice you'll get. But as far as just internal versus external there isn't much difference. Too many of either one will look bad to search engines, and a high ratio of links to non-link text is bad as well.

[EugeneF]

I want to be very clear.   I am talking about two types of outgoing links from a page.  Links to other pages on the same website and links to pages on other websites.

[AmericanOutlets]

Outgoing/Incoming and Internal/External are two different link classifications.

Outgoing = links from your site to another site
Incoming = links from another site to your site

Internal = links from one page on your site to another page on your site
External = links from another site to your site

So incoming and external are basically the same, and are very important factor in search rankings. Don't get me wrong, outgoing links are good too (they connect your site to the site you link to, and the owner of that site may choose to reciprocate), but because you have to "earn" incoming/external links they are worth more to search engines.

I would look at the Authority and mozRank of a site you want a link from first, because those scores are an aggregate of links and other factors that give a more complete picture of how valuable a site is.