You’ve probably heard this SEO advice before:
Don’t link to other websites. You’re just giving away your SEO.
Sometimes you’ll hear this described as “SEO leakage” – the idea that when you put an external link on your website, you’re giving some of your hard-earned SEO value to another website.
And if that other website happens to be a competitor, that can sound even worse.
So should website owners be afraid to link out?
No. Not when the link is useful.
What Does “SEO Leakage” Mean?
“SEO leakage” isn’t a Google ranking factor. For those, read: What Factors Does Google Consider When Ranking Websites?
It’s an informal term used to describe the idea that links from one website to another can pass along ranking signals.
The problem is what sometimes happens next.
A website owner hears that external links can pass value and concludes:
“Then I should avoid external links so I can keep all of my SEO.”
That might sound logical at first. But it misses the reason websites have links in the first place.
Links are there to connect useful information.
The fact that the other website may also benefit from the link isn’t a reason to leave it out. It goes along with the phrase, Sharing is Caring.
Think About It From the Customer’s Point of View
Imagine someone is reading an article on your website about a new product or service.
The article says that the company recently announced a major change.
The reader wants to know:
Where did that information come from?
If the article links directly to the company’s announcement, the reader can check it for themselves.
That’s useful.
Now imagine the same article doesn’t link to the announcement because the website owner is worried about “leaking SEO.”
The reader has to leave the site, open Google, search for the announcement, and try to figure out which page the article was referring to.
That doesn’t make the article better.
It makes it more difficult to verify.
What Google Actually Says About External Links
Google’s guidance isn’t that you shouldn’t link to other websites.
What Google doesn’t like is manipulative linking – things such as buying or selling links for ranking purposes, excessive link exchanges, and other attempts to manipulate search rankings. That’s what Google is talking about in its Search spam policies.
That’s different from simply linking to another website because it has information that is relevant to what you’re writing about.
If you write about a new government regulation and link to the government website where the regulation was published, that makes sense.
If you review a product and link to the manufacturer’s documentation to explain a technical specification, that makes sense.
If you’re discussing a study and link to the original research, that makes sense.
Google’s documentation on crawlable links also makes it clear that links are a normal part of how Google discovers and understands content on the web.
If there’s a good reason and the link is useful to the reader, there’s nothing inherently wrong with linking out.
But What If the Other Website Is a Competitor?
This is where the “SEO leakage” idea can really become counterproductive.
Suppose a customer is reading an article about a product or service and the article mentions a competitor. The customer may want to see the competitor’s own information, specifications, documentation, or explanation.
Should the link be left out simply because the other company is a competitor?
Not necessarily.
If that information comes from the competitor’s website, there is still a good reason to link to it.
For example, a customer researching cameras may want to check the manufacturer’s specifications. A customer comparing hosting services may want to read a hosting company’s documentation.
The fact that another company may benefit from the link doesn’t change whether the link is useful to the customer.
And there’s another benefit: linking to the original source can make your article more trustworthy.
Related: What Makes a Simple Website Feel Trustworthy? (From Real User Experience, Not Theory)
Don’t Add Links Just for SEO
An external link isn’t automatically a good link, either.
A website doesn’t become better simply because it has 50 links pointing to other websites.
If a page is stuffed with unrelated links, affiliate links, directories, or links that don’t provide anything useful to the visitor, that’s a different problem.
The question shouldn’t be:
“How many external links should this page have?”
A better question is:
“Which links actually help the person reading this page?”
If it helps the reader, include it. If it doesn’t, leave it out.
What About nofollow?
This is where nofollow can come into play.
Google does not recommend putting nofollow on every external link simply because it goes to another website. If you’re linking to a trusted source because it provides useful information for your readers, a normal editorial link is appropriate.
nofollow is useful when you don’t want to signal that you endorse or associate your site with the page you’re linking to.
For example, a company might link to a competitor’s website because the competitor has information that customers may find useful, but still use nofollow because it doesn’t want to endorse that competitor.
If you’re linking to a trusted source for your readers, you generally don’t need nofollow just because the link is external.
And paid links and user-generated links have their own attributes: sponsored for paid or sponsored links and ugc for links added by users.
What About Linking to “High-Authority” Websites?
There’s another SEO recommendation that gets mixed into this:
Link to authoritative websites because it will make your own website more authoritative.
But does it actually work that way?
There is no Google guidance saying that linking to a high-authority website gives your own website a ranking boost simply because you linked to it.
Google does encourage useful, relevant links. But that’s different from saying that linking to a high-authority website makes your own website more authoritative.
So don’t add a link to a website simply because someone has labeled it “high authority” and said Google will reward you for linking to it.
Link because the source is useful and relevant to the customer – not because you expect the other website’s authority to rub off on yours.
Related: How to Increase Website Domain Authority Fast?
Don’t Go From One Extreme to the Other
There’s a funny thing that happens with SEO advice.
First, someone says:
“Never link to other websites. You’ll leak your SEO.”
Then somebody else says:
“You need external links for SEO.”
So the website owner starts adding links everywhere.
Now there are links to industry websites, news sites, directories, blogs, statistics pages and anything else that sounds authoritative.
Neither approach is particularly helpful.
What About Internal Links?
This doesn’t mean external links are more important than internal links.
Internal linking is extremely useful because it helps visitors navigate a website and helps search engines discover and understand the relationships between pages on that site.
A website should have a sensible internal linking structure.
If there’s a related page that answers the next question a visitor is likely to have, linking to that page makes sense.
But internal linking and external linking don’t have to be an either/or decision.
A good article might link to several relevant pages on its own website and link to a few useful outside sources.
Related: The Power of Links: How Internal and External Links Boost SEO
The Bigger Problem Is SEO Hoarding
The real problem with worrying too much about “SEO leakage” is that it can turn SEO into a game of hoarding.
Don’t mention that company.
Don’t link to that source.
Don’t send visitors anywhere else.
Don’t give another website any benefit.
Eventually, the website owner can end up making decisions based on protecting SEO rather than helping customers.
That’s backwards.
A Simple Rule for External Links
Before adding an external link, ask:
Does this link help the visitor?
If yes, include it.
If the link is only there because someone told you that you need more outbound links for SEO, you probably don’t need it.
Tip: You can set the external links to open in a new window – actually, that is how you should do it.
So, Are You “Leaking SEO”?
The phrase makes it sound as though your website has a limited supply of SEO that is slowly escaping every time someone clicks a link.
That’s not a useful way to think about your website.
Don’t make your website less useful because you’re worried another website might benefit from it, too.
Good SEO and good website publishing aren’t about keeping people trapped on one website. They’re about giving people the information they’re looking for.
And sometimes, the best way to do that is to point them to the source.
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