External Linking

External linking refers to outbound links within your content.

I did not include this within either the content development or user experience sections because it deserves a separate section.

It is that important.

You may be wondering why...

Using external links to authority or reference sites increases your trust factor and authority as well as improve UX.

Old school thinking was not to have outbound links in your content unless it was to a sales page (affiliate link) or another page owned by you. Once you had a website visitor, you did not want the reader leaving to see other content.

Note: It still is a good idea to limit the number of outbound affiliate links to no more than 3.

Today, it is advantageous to you to have outbound links to authority sites for several reasons.

First of all, it helps the search engines understand the topic of your content for SEO purposes.

Also, linking to authority sites helps establish your site as an authority site in its own right. By linking to trustworthy information it conveys the idea that you are an authority because you know the difference.

External links help improve the user experience by improving the trust factor. Citing source data or references improve reader confidence in the validity of your content. Of course, the source must be credible.

Otherwise,

The next time your read a blog post from an well-known expert, check the number of external links they have.

For example, I read a 1,954 word post by Neil Patel a few days ago. He had 19 outbound links. 10 links were to his own internal and external content and 9 links to other sources. His links were to source data as well as amplifying reference material.

Next: The Missing Piece