External links are hyperlinks within a website that point to an external website or source.
To put it more simply, an external link will link a phrase or button on your site to a page on another site. For example, if you have a review of an iPhone, you would add a link to ?iPhone? that leads to Apple?s iPhone page.
What is an External Link?
External links let you refer visitors to other websites. For example, if on your site you mention Apple’s iPhone page and link to it, that’s an external link. (Your live page defines it similarly: “a hyperlink within a website that points to an external website or source.”)
From an SEO perspective, external links serve a few purposes:
- Credibility / References: Linking out to authoritative sources (studies, reputable organizations) can support your content’s trustworthiness and help users verify information.
- User Experience: They guide users to deeper or more detailed resources without replicating content.
- Link Equity Considerations: While external links don’t directly boost your own page’s ranking, how and where you link out—and whether you use attributes like
rel="nofollow"orrel="sponsored"—can influence how search engines see your linking behavior. If you link to questionable or spammy sites, it may hurt your reputation. - Balance & Strategy: Too many external links are distracting; too few may make your content seem isolated. Use them judiciously and ensure they are relevant and valuable to your readers.
When adding external links, choose anchor text that clearly describes where users will land, avoid linking to low-quality or unverified sources, and consider using target="_blank" (to open new tabs) when appropriate so users aren’t navigated away unintentionally.
Internal links point to pages within your own site. External links point to pages on other sites.
They don’t directly pass ranking credit to your pages. If they point to high-quality, relevant resources, they can enhance your content’s trust and usefulness. But linking to poor or spammy sites can reflect badly.