External links are hyperlinks that point from one website to another different domain, connecting users to outside web content sources.
What Is an External Link?
An external link is a hyperlink on your website that leads to a page on another website or domain. These links are used to reference, credit, or direct users to additional information that you don’t host.
Why External Links Matter in SEO
External links help search engines understand your content better and show that you’re referencing trusted, authoritative sources. Linking to credible websites can enhance your content’s trustworthiness. However, linking to spammy or low-quality sites can negatively impact SEO.
Example:
If your blog mentions Google’s ranking guidelines and you link to https://developers.google.com/search, that’s an external link.
Best Practices:
- Link only to trustworthy, high-authority domains.
- Use relevant and descriptive anchor text.
- Set external links to open in a new tab for better user experience.
- Use the
rel="nofollow"tag if the link is sponsored or untrusted. - Don’t overload pages with excessive external links.
