7 External Linking Best Practices for SEO

These are the top ranking factors that Google considers when it comes to displaying results on the Search Engine Result Page (SERP).

Since a lot of search engine optimization is about getting lots of good links to and from your website, learning how to make those links work for you is important.

In this article, we will discuss what external linking is and why you should do it. We also reveal seven best practices for external linking. At the end of this article, we’ll tell you how to use external links to get your content to appear higher up on search engine results.

When should you link to other websites in SEO?

External links are hyperlinks that direct the reader to a website other than your own. On the surface, using external links seems counter-intuitive – after all, those links are what lead people away from your website. However, as we shall see later in this article, it is one of the most important sources of ranking power you will ever use.

Four advantages of external linking

Linking to external websites, when done correctly, has several advantages:

1. External linking improves your credibility.

Adding trustworthy and relevant website links to your content will improve your website’s credibility. In addition, valuable external links provide your readers with testimonials that increase the authority of your website.

External linking is similar to citing sources in a bibliography for a scientific paper – it shows that you have created your content on the basis of in-depth research.

2. External linking improves your SEO.

The external links you add can help search engines determine the usefulness and quality of your pages. High quality pages usually link to other high quality pages; Hence, search engines will view your content positively and help you rank higher.

When you link to an interesting article on a critical topic that is of interest to your business, Google uses that as a way to find out what your website is about.

3. External links are an easy way to make connections.

Other websites can tell when you link to them. And chances are they will return the favor on the occasion and link to your website, which is great because the more high quality backlinks you get, the better.

It’s an easy and positive way to socialize, make connections in your industry, and bring your content to the right audience.

4. External linking offers readers added value.

Adding external links provides a better user experience for readers. These links lead to related information that add value to your content without duplicating content. When readers see that you regularly refer to resources that help them better understand a topic, they will place more value on your website.

External Link Best Practices

According to Google, linking is one of the most important factors in achieving high rankings. You need to understand how to use external links to your advantage. Here are the top external linking best practices that you should adopt.

1. Make the links relevant.

When adding external links, don’t just add links. Instead, add links that direct readers to relevant content.

Good external links usually refer to related content. Examples of what you could link are statistics, infographics, videos, etc.

Google and other search engines value users and want to show the most relevant results for their search query. Therefore, when external links come from websites in the same niche, Google will better understand the relevance of your content and its popularity, which will result in a higher SERP ranking.

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2. Link to reputable sources.

The external link in the picture above has 60% as anchor text. It leads to a website that contains these statistics and other relevant information.

If you link externally, you only link to sites that are binding and trustworthy. If you link to websites that promote clickbait content or are non-professional, you are lowering the trust of your readers. And it could have a negative impact on how search engines rate your content.

When you have no choice but to link to websites whose content you don’t trust, use a no-follow tag. This tag advises search engine crawlers that the linked page should not be linked to your page.

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The latest content marketing report compiled by HubSpot has numerous external links to reputable sources in the content marketing industry.

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3. Use the anchor text correctly.

Let’s look at a practical example of what makes good and bad anchor text.

We have an article on HubSpot about how to write a blog post. You can click here to read this article.

Do you see what i did there? The word “here” is the so-called anchor text for the link. And that anchor text is essential for search engines to read your website. By using “here” as the anchor text, I unfortunately only give Google very little help or advice on the content of the page to which I am linking.

Instead, here’s a much better (and correct) way to do this:

The Right Way: We have a previous article on HubSpot about how to blog.

The second way is much better than the first for several reasons.

First, it’s easier for readers to click the link (and know it’s a link). But more importantly, we now have the anchor text as “How to write a blog post”“. So when the search engine spiders “see” this link, they consider the anchor text when determining what the landing page is about.

Therefore, use descriptive keywords in the anchor text or keywords that the linked page is targeting. However, do not anchor text in sentences as this can look like spam and readers may find it annoying.

After pasting the anchor text, read it again. Does it look forced? Does the link look helpful and natural? They want the latter to be true.

Here is an example where Google gives more information on how to write good link text.

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4. Add helpful links.

How many external links should you use in your content? There is no conclusive answer.

However, you shouldn’t overwhelm your reader with too many external or internal links. Your goal in linking should be to provide the best possible reading experience. You could end up losing readers if they feel like they’re only being used as part of your SEO strategy.

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This page from Backlinko has at least 150 external links and is number 1 in the Google SERP for several search queries. Hence, you can have as many external links as you want as long as it makes sense to add them.

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5. Open external links in another tab.

Your external links should open in a different tab, and this is important for a number of reasons. However, the most important reason for opening links in a new tab is to give the visitor as much control as possible over their experience on your website.

example

This article about statistics proving why link building is important has external links that open in a new tab. That way, the reader can keep reading the article while viewing the information you’ve linked without losing one thing or the other.

6. Do not link to competing websites.

It is harmful to link to websites that are competing for the same keywords. For example, if you were targeting the keyword “best toy for dogs”, you shouldn’t link to a website that is already ranked # 1 for that keyword.

Instead, link to websites that add value to your content, e.g. B. Pages that contain general information. The “Best Toy For Dogs” example allows you to link to a video about a specific dog toy that you are promoting that is not on a competitor’s website.

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In the image above, HubSpot’s article on the best digital marketing tools does not link to a competing article, but rather to specific tools like Ahrefs that support the article.

7. Perform a link audit.

Take some time every quarter (or at regular intervals) to review your content for outdated or broken links. Why is that important?

If readers encounter broken or outdated external links in your content, it will reduce their experience and they may lose confidence in your credibility.

You can use a tool like Check My Links to find broken links on your website.

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Create a successful external linking strategy

High quality external links in your content will provide your readers with more resources while building the authority of your content and website. If done right, external linking can even improve your ranking in the SERPs.

So now is the time to put everything you learned from this article into practice and let external links work for you.

Editor’s note: This post was originally published in January 2007 and has been updated for completeness.