SEO Knowledge: External Link
Last Update: January 03, 2019

What is an External Link

An External Link is when you link a page or post from your site to another page or post on a different site. You also use specific words to link with.


For example, these words will link to a page in Wikipedia:

Learn More About External Links

The Benefit of an External Link

When you create an external link on your page/post, it shows Google that you are adding additional references to your topic and also creates a balance of internal & external links.

When you externally link with certain words, this helps Google understand the relevancy of the URL you are linking to and thus helps with YOUR rankings.

Affiliate Links are NOT External Links

Contrary to what you may think, affiliate links are not considered external links as there is a monetization strategy to it.

How to Create an External Link

Highlight the text you wish to link and press the link icon within your editing toolbar. From there, type the full URL of the external link.

When creating an External Link, ensure you are doing the following:

  • Have at least one external link in your page/posts
  • Use relevant anchor text
  • Have the link open in a new window (although I prefer to have it load in the same window)
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LauraMoran74 Premium
Hi, I have a question... I mean two questions... or more?? It because I have just 3 weeks doing this, Im following you at your seminars, that are great! I speak a little english and Im very slow....
jajaja, sorry always learning
well, when you mean relevant anchor text, you mean keywords??
and the external link can it be anypage that is related to my content?
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Crazyhaggis Premium
@LauraMoran74
Anchor text is the visible clickable text in a hyperlink.
An external link is generally a link to a page that gives information on what you are writing about. For example a link referring to a fact from Wikipedia etc. It’s expanding or confirming the comment you are making. It gives your reader further information.
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LauraMoran74 Premium
@Crazyhaggis
ohh ok thenkyou
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Benjamin89 Premium
I have built my website with an emphasis on not adding too many, if not any external links to other sources, so that it gives the sense to google that my content is valuable and credible on it's own.

Mind you, i'm just going on my thoughts versus some real insights into search engine algorithms.

I've started this approach with the thinking that by aimlessly linking out to other resources online. I would just be giving other persons/organisation's content a boost and making my content appear of lesser quality.

But, I do still add the url address on my articles without the hyperlink attachment.

Would this be a bad idea? Could this be a good strategy? Should I go through my content and add external links where I have just typed the URL page address and left out the actual external link.

My site is purely dedicated to the promotion of Wealthy Affiliate/Jaaxy/SiteRubix. I have no external links/affiliate links to any other company services I reviewed so far.

I'm sure a healthy balance should be met, but starting out (3 months) in. I feel that I want to keep my content appearing as a good source of info without crediting others content though linking...

What do you think Jay? I don't have any real proof on the matter. Just going on a hunch I guess...
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sc3092 Premium
Thank you, Jay.
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JillAlexaVA Premium
Hi Jay, Thank you for this information. I have bookmarked it so that I can go over it and get it straight in my mind. Am still a bit unsure about affiliate links in posts. Have joined a few Affiliate Programs but can't always find my link. Still, a bit of a ditz, am afraid.
Wishing you all the best for 2019.
Kind Regards,
Jill
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waawaawaa4 Premium
Thank you for the educational post.
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TanyaCHA Premium
Hello Jay..Sorry... This is a bit of subject. But I have a few question regarding the affiliate links. How many affiliate links the most you would recommend for 1 post about 1200-1500 words? Can 5-6 affiliate links to the same source affect the page ranking? Or if these 5-6 affiliate links are to the different sites like post about 5-6 best products from different sellers.
And should the affiliate links be opened in a new window?

Thank you very much for your help in advance.

Tanya
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magistudios Premium
@TanyaCHA
Hi Tanya,

What I would do is only have one link at the bottom and then once the post is ranking on 1st page, then add up to 3 affiliate links.
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TanyaCHA Premium
@magistudios
Thank you very much Jay for your reply.
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Paul90 Premium
That's useful information Jay. Thanks!
Paul
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SaoriKonish1 Premium
Great information. Thanks, Jay!
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dragonfly10 Premium
Thank you, Jay Links, are much clearer now. I truly appreciate your time.
Sandy
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FKelso Premium
Just what I needed to learn! Thanks, Jay.

Does the link have to be to Wikipedia, or can you link to another source (website) that you used in your post?
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magistudios Premium
@FKelso
Hi Fran,

It can be any authority based source.
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FKelso Premium
@magistudios
Great. To be a bit more specific: I just finished researching a topic that I will rewrite in my own words, but at the end was going to put an external link with the source URL, which is a specific website. So that's okay?
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Terand Premium
Thank you for sharing and teaching, Jay! Bookmarked for revision too :o)
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emarketingguy Premium
Does Google recommend that bloggers put external links in their posts? Does this help get the posts indexed better? I’ve been noticing that the “2nd site” created by WA outranks my main site, is it because I’m not linking to any external sites?
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magistudios Premium
@emarketingguy
Hi Marshall,

Google won't come right out and say that it is a ranking metric, but there have been enough studies to prove that it is.

For example:
https://www.rebootonline.com/blog/long-term-outgoing-link-experiment/

As a fellow SEO, I recommend you read that in its entirety.
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emarketingguy Premium
@magistudios
Thanks for the source link. I think you’re right, sometimes they want to see that you’re not just trying to monetize but rather they want us to show that we are experts in a niche and they do rank sites higher who link out to relevant sources. Arg, gotta go back and link out now, but happy to do so. Thanks Jay!
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phil1944 Premium
Yes, where there's a relevant topic on Wikipedia, I will often link to it. I believe it increases your authority.

However, I'll always open the external link in a new page as I don't want visitors accidentally leaving my site and relying on them using the browser's back arrow to return to it.

I'll open in the same window for internal links only.
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