Definition
What is an outbound link?
An outbound link is a link placed on your site that leads to a page on another domain. It is the opposite of an inbound link, or backlink, which comes from a third-party site to yours. The two directions do not have the same effects: an inbound link passes authority to your site, an outbound link passes it to the destination site. Google has repeated since 2016 that an outbound link is not a ranking factor, positive or negative.
What Google says about it
The fear of “losing link juice” by pointing outward rests on no Google document. John Mueller, Google's Search Advocate, answered in 2016, in 2019 and again in 2023 that links from your site to other sites are not a ranking factor, that they can add value for the reader, and that marking them nofollow or not changes nothing. His rule fits in one question: does this link provide real value to the person reading? If yes, link normally. If not, don't.
Nofollow keeps nothing for you either. Since 2009, the share of value carried by a nofollow link has not been redistributed to the other links on the page. Since March 2020, Google treats the attribute as a hint it can follow or ignore, not as an instruction.
The attributes to know
- rel="sponsored" is required as soon as the relationship is paid: a sponsorship, a partner program under contract, an affiliate link.
- rel="nofollow" suits links you do not endorse, as well as badges or embed codes you provide to third parties for their own sites.
- rel="ugc" marks links left by users, in comments for example.
- target="_blank" opens a new tab. It is a usability decision, with no effect on ranking.
- rel="noreferrer" erases your trail: the linked site no longer knows where the visit came from and files it under direct traffic. Copied by reflex alongside noopener, it cancels the visibility you meant to give a client or a partner.
The one real SEO risk: a network that links back and forth with itself
An isolated reciprocal link is normal: Google said so in 2022, with the example of a local business that links its neighbours. What its spam policies prohibit are excessive link exchanges and partner pages created exclusively for cross-linking. The risk shows up when the same exchange is repeated mechanically across dozens of sites in the same commercial network: a manufacturer and its retailers, a distributor and its brands, a partner program where everyone links to everyone.
In all three cases, the fix is not to remove the links that serve the customer. It is to surround each link with real content (address, territory, product line) rather than lining up bare logos, and to mark badges provided by a third party as sponsored or nofollow.
What an outbound link costs or brings in sales
Published tests deal with single-goal landing pages that get paid traffic: removing links there gains 0% to 28% in conversions depending on visitor intent. No published test measures the effect of a clickable logo on a homepage, which serves several intents at once. There is even data pointing the other way: a link that lets someone verify a rating, a review or an award can reduce the abandonment of a hesitant buyer, who no longer has to leave the site to check for themselves. The only way to know the effect on your page is to measure outbound clicks and compare them to your conversions.
Suppose a fictional distributor of heating equipment that displays twenty-five brand logos, each clickable to the manufacturer's site. Two of those manufacturers also sell direct: the link sends the prospect to a competitor. The distributor replaces each logo with a link to its own brand sheet, which describes the product line it carries and the territory it covers. The brand sheet links to the manufacturer's site, in context, outside the conversion zone.
The code of those links carries target="_blank" with rel="noopener" and no noreferrer, so that each manufacturer sees in its GA4 reports the traffic the distributor sends. A tracking event counts outbound clicks, compared every month with the inquiries received.
We decide on an outbound link based on what it does for the reader, never on a fear of “losing link juice”. A link that lets someone verify a source, a rating or an award builds the confidence of a hesitant buyer. A link placed in a conversion zone, with no reason for the reader, moves the visitor at the very moment they were deciding. On a single-goal landing page, we remove the links: that is the documented case.
On our own site, every outbound link opens in a new tab, and an automatic check enforces it before each release. We let the referrer through, so the linked site can see where the visit came from. We measure a page's outbound clicks to compare them with its conversions rather than guess.
Not to be confused with
- Inbound link (backlink)
- An inbound link comes from a third-party site to yours and passes authority to your site. An outbound link leaves your site and passes authority to the destination site.
- Internal link
- An internal link connects two pages of the same site. Its organization is internal linking, which acts on crawling and site hierarchy, whereas an outbound link does not act on your ranking.
- Third-party mention
- A mention names your company on another site without necessarily linking to it. An outbound link is a link, placed by you, that leads to another domain.
Related concepts
Further reading
- Should client and partner logos on your website be clickable?
- Internal linking: how to organize your links for SEO
- Buying backlinks: costs, SEO risks and alternatives
- Google E-E-A-T: what it means for content quality
- Landing pages: matching your page to the promise of your ad
- Web accessibility in Quebec: obligations for private businesses
Related services
Frequently asked questions
Does linking to other sites hurt my SEO?
No. Google has stated since 2016 that outbound links are not a ranking factor, positive or negative. The only risk shows up when an entire network links back and forth systematically, with no content around the links, across dozens of sites. A link that serves the reader is placed normally.
Should I put nofollow on all my outbound links?
Not by default. Nofollow preserves no value for your other links, and Google has treated it as a mere hint since 2020. It is justified on a badge provided by a third party, or to break symmetry when the other site already links to you in its template. As soon as the relationship is paid, rel="sponsored" is required.
Why can't my partner see the traffic I'm sending them?
Most often because the link carries rel="noreferrer", added by reflex alongside noopener. This attribute strips the referrer header, and the visits fall into the linked site's direct traffic. Remove it, or add UTM parameters to the link, so the partner can see what you are sending them.
