Linking out on your primary keyword: Good, Bad, or Indifferent? | Bloggers Lair | Yakezie Forums

So I'm working on a post right now. Ideally, it should be going live in the next three or so hours. And I have an SEO question. I don't pay too much attention to SEO as a rule, aside from the recommendations in the Wordpress SEO plugin. But I was curious as to what others thought on the topic.

The Zemanta plugin recommends, among other things, in-text links to include in your post. I generally only select one or two out of the list, especially since they tend to recommend a dozen or more Wikipedia links each article! Right now, I'm working on a home recipe for the popular McDonald's chicken snack wraps. As I was writing, it suggested a link for my primary keyword (chicken snack wrap)! Actually, it suggested a link to McDonald's menu page.

In general is it a good idea to link out on your keyword? Is it bad SEO policy to do so? Or does it really make no difference what-so-ever?

On the pro side of the argument, I could see the link as showing that I care enough about that particular word to give my readers more information. On the con side, I am sending link juice to a site competing for that keyword, strengthening their position over mine. Or maybe I'm just over analyzing here. Opinions?

Thanks. I did leave the link in, although I moved it from the first instance in my intro paragraph, to the next instance in the second paragraph. I'm not sure if it makes a difference, but I'm not a big fan of links in that first paragraph unless the word I am linking with doesn't appear anywhere else.

I would agree with Pauline. In the case of McD's anyone can easily go to their site. I only like to stuff if I cite it of course, or if the article provides a more in depth analysis of what I am talking about that I feel my readers would benefit from.