As a Q&A site, we naturally link to a lot of external URLs. Part of what makes q&a sites awesome is that we typically link to the right pages.
Before linking out, I encourage everyone to look inward first...we have a lot of amazing answers that fall through the cracks. I'm not just up here trying to be a goody two shoes either. I link out all the time.
But after looking at a few things I strongly believe that cannibalization + internal link architecture issues are inhibiting our site quite a bit when it comes to organic search.
We ought to have that sort of thing on lock, yeah?
Just a thought.
I have absolutely, positively, no data to support my theory...but my gut says it's true. I welcome any and all criticism/speculation. Let's think it out. But there's sure as heck something wacky going on with the site.
site:webmasters.stackexchange.com the topic I am looking for
. More often than not, it returns a post that I can internal link for context, and it does so more efficiently than Stack Exchange's built in search. As a side note it's also great for finding duplicate questions, when a question comes in that you're just sure has been asked before.