External Link
A link from your website pointing to a different website.
An external link (also called an outbound link) is a hyperlink that points from your website to a different domain. When you cite a source, reference a study, or recommend a tool on another site, those are external links.
Some people worry that external links "leak" PageRank or SEO value to other sites. While there's a small theoretical cost, linking to relevant, authoritative sources actually helps your SEO. It shows search engines that your content is well-researched and connected to the broader web.
Think of academic papers — they always cite their sources. That doesn't weaken the paper; it strengthens it by showing the research is grounded in existing knowledge. External links work the same way on the web.
Best practices: link to relevant, high-quality sources. Don't link to spammy or low-quality sites. Use descriptive anchor text. And if you're linking to something you don't want to endorse (like a competitor in a comparison), you can use the nofollow attribute.
Why It Matters for SEO
External links to authoritative sources improve your content's credibility and can help search engines understand your page's topic. A page with zero external links can look isolated and less trustworthy. Quality outbound linking is a sign of good content.