What Is External Linking? + How To Do It Right

Simply put, external links are hyperlinks that target or point toward a domain other than the one on which the link itself exists. If you link to any website other than your own in your content, that is your external link.

Similarly, if other websites link to your website or blog, that’s also an external link— and your backlink—an important part of any SEO strategy. Internal and external links are one of the many components of a successful SEO strategy. Let’s learn more about them here.

Internal vs External Links: What’s the Difference?

As the name suggests, an internal link is a hyperlink that points to another page on your website. This could be a link to a relevant service, blog, or guide that adds value to the content or helps back it up. You can also use internal links to direct users toward more relevant, similar pages on your website that add more value to the topic.

It’s a great strategy to keep users on the website. More than that, internal links help search engines understand your content and determine its value.

As explained above, external links point to a website other than your own. These links pass authority to the linked website as search engines recognize these links as a trust signal. These links can be to sources that validate your content or provide more context to it.

Internal vs external links don’t compete with each other—you need both for a good content strategy.  In terms of SEO strategy, external linking adds more value to a website than internal linking, which is why it’s important to have a healthy balance of both in your content.

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Why Are External Hyperlinks Important?

External hyperlinks in particular are important for two particular reasons:

• They help your users (and the search engines) find and understand more about a particular topic.
• They help improve the reputation and ranking of a website if the external links come from an authoritative website relevant to the content—as the websites pass link equity (or ranking power) back to the source.

External links help the user understand a topic more or explore more details about a topic. This provides a better user experience, which in turn contributes to better ranking, by telling the search engines that this content is valuable to people.

Moreover, in SEO strategy, external links from authoritative websites are seen as a sign of trust for the content and the page. The more websites that link to you, the better. But all this might make you wonder…

Why Should I Link to Other Sources?

You might be thinking, why would you link externally and risk losing visitors when you want them to stay longer on your site? Well, there are plenty of reasons why:

• It improves the user experience: It’s not possible to cover everything in one web page or blog—by offering high-quality relevant external links on your page, you’re leading the readers to more detailed information, helping them understand the topic better.
• When you link to reliable sources, it boosts your credibility too and can improve search engine rankings.
• External links help search engines understand the quality of your content—high-quality websites link to other high-quality websites—so it’s a win-win.
• When you link to other websites, they can return the favor and help you earn brownie points as well—it’s a great way to make connections.

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How to Choose the Best External Hyperlinks?

Now that you’re well-versed with what is external linking, it’s time to understand how to implement it in your content strategy. Here are some best practices to keep in mind, when choosing an external link for your website or blog.

Make Sure the Link Is Relevant

External links are great for SEO—there’s no doubt about that. However, that doesn’t mean you should link to external sources without thought. It’s important to really think about whether that link will add context and provide value to your reader.

For example, you briefly touched upon a concept and linked it to a website for further reading. You can link to studies, published journals, infographics, etc. to support your content with reliable sources.

Link to High-Authority Websites

When linking to external websites, make sure you’re sending your user to a reliable and reputable source with good-quality content. Your user won’t be too happy to land on a clickbait website with irrelevant or insufficient information. Linking to low-quality websites will only hurt your SEO, so it’s better to avoid it.

Optimize the Anchor Text

Knowing how to choose the links is one thing,  how to link them is another. The part of the content you highlight and link is called the anchor text and it should be optimized as well.  

For best practices, choose a word or phrase that best describes what the page is about. This not only tells all major search engines what the link is about but also lets readers know what to expect when they click the link, improving the user experience.

Let The Influence Agency Amp Up Your SEO Game

If you’re ready to take your SEO to the next level, and wondering where to start, let The Influence Agency guide you! As experts in all things SEO and digital marketing, we take pride in delivering high-quality content that converts!

Get in touch with us today and transform your SEO strategy!

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