📍External Link (also called an outbound link) is a hyperlink on your website that points to a different website or domain.
Why Are External Links Used?
External links help connect users to useful or related content outside your own site. They are often used to:
- Support your claims with trusted sources.
- Guide users to tools or extra resources.
- Improve user experience by offering deeper context.
- Cite original content, research, or data.
Are External Links Important for SEO?
Yes, external links play a role in SEO, both for your site and for others:
✅ For your website. Search engines may see you as more trustworthy when you link to high-quality, relevant content. It shows that you’re adding value and helping users.
✅ For the website you link to. External links can drive traffic to other sites and, when earned naturally, may boost their SEO rankings.
How External Links Are Different from Internal Links
- External links go to a different website.
- Internal links point to other pages on your own website.
Both are useful, but serve different purposes in SEO and navigation.
Real-Life Example
Imagine you’re writing a blog post about digital marketing trends. To support a statistic, you include a link to a report on ahrefs.com. That hyperlink is an external link — it sends users to a different domain for more information.
Summary for Beginners
An external link is a hyperlink that points from your website to another domain. These links help users find valuable information and show search engines that your content is well-sourced and connected to the broader web.