Episode 46-The Real Deal with Outbound Links

Theory of Content

What’s happening in SEO this week?

Everyone is still talking about the November 8th Update. The consensus is that this update is returning nonsensical results, typically from bigger websites with larger link profiles, but not necessarily the best content. We’re still observing and don’t have any definitive opinions yet.

Also big, but not necessarily relevant to action items, the Google co-founders decided to step down this week, leaving Sundar Pichai as CEO of both Google and Alphabet. It will be interesting to see if there are any major changes to either company, but so far analysts doubt anything significant will change in the day-to-day.

What are we talking about this week?

Before we jump into the FaceBag –

I’d like for us to talk a little bit about internal and external linking, getting backlinks, how to link to others correctly.

Josh, you wrote a post for the Mediavine blog about this a while ago, and I’d love to revisit it. How do YOU go about asking for backlinks from others? Do you ask? Or do you wait for them to notice your good content?

I’m not certain who it is, but in the groups, I’m hearing there’s an analyst telling bloggers that all outbound links, especially to other bloggers, should be no-followed. Can we talk about why this is incorrect, and in fact, could be harmful?

How should someone properly link?

Kat – Wandering Bird

I have several posts I wrote when I was a blogging beginner (and had never heard of SEO!) Since then, I’ve written newer, better posts that are ranking well in Google for the same information as these old posts- making the old posts redundant.

What’s the best way to deal with these posts. Should I delete and redirect to the newer posts? If so, how do I do that safely?

Or should I do something else? None of them are ranking high in Google and get very very few clicks. Thanks for your help.

Josh Boquist – A License to Grill | Dahn Boquist

Hi Amber and Josh,

I have a couple of questions related to my site, www.alicensetogrill.com and my mom’s site, www.savorthebest.com.

I am using the Gutenberg block editor on WordPress and have some reusable blocks. For instance, my call to action to subscribe on social and I have another reusable block for tips and tricks in the air fryer. It allows me to easily add 500 words that I frequently use in several posts. I noticed that WordPress doesn’t recognize these reusable blocks as words in the word count. I have the option after inputting the reusable block to convert it to regular blocks, at which point WordPress shows the word count correctly. Is there any disadvantage to using these reusable blocks other than me not knowing the correct word count when composing a post? Should I convert them to regular blocks or leave them as reusable blocks?

I am using the same host and sharing my mom’s domain since we are partnering on our sites together. I am trying to get alicensetogrill.com set up with Google Analytics and search console. I have properly verified DNS for alicensetogrill search console but when I try to add it to my search console in GA I am only able to add savorthebest as the site. When I do so it seems to kind of work since I am able to see posts from alicensetogrill (as intended) but if I go back several months in the search I can see some traffic coming from posts on savorthebest. When I follow the link in GA to these posts it takes me to a 404 page error on alicensetogrill. For the posts that are actually on alicensetogrill and showing in GA it is not showing any of my traffic appropriately. We are both lost here, do you have any advice on how I can set up my GA appropriately?

Jodie Chessor Morgan – Two Lucky Spoons

Hey y’all!

Long time listener, first time caller here. LOVE the podcast! I think I’ve listened to pretty much every episode so far.

Anyway, here’s my question:

I’m a blog dinosaur with a blog that will be turning 12 years old in 2020 (shameless plug > twoluckyspoons.com). With an ancient site such as mine, there are A LOT of old and out of date posts. I’m working my way through them (some so old they don’t even have recipe cards) and some fairly new that just need a little tweak. What s the best practice for updating publish dates? Do I merely update and leave the post publish date set to the original publish date or do I essentially “republish” the content and throw it back on the top of the heap like a brand new post? Do I treat more recent posts differently (i.e. something published in 2016 vs. 2009)?

Thanks for all of the sage advice!

Brandy Crawford

I hear you guys mention Discover as an Android thing, but if you have the Google App on iPhone it shows a Discover page as well. I see mine daily, and Amber, like yours, mine is PERFECTLY curated for articles I typically like.

It looks like you can also go in and adjust filters and settings, which I haven’t done.

Ashleigh Allman

I’m starting my second site and just wondered what you would do from the beginning to start off gaining organic traffic?

Specifically, I’m curious about on-page SEO, site speed, plugins that you would suggest.

Thanks!

Header Checker Links:

• Header Checker: https://www.internetmarketingninjas.com/header-checker/
• Server Header Checker: http://tools.seobook.com/server-header-checker/

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