Creating an outbound link requires a standard HTML anchor tag that points to another website’s URL. The basic code is straightforward, but the details matter: your choice of attributes, anchor text, and link placement all affect how search engines evaluate your page and how readers experience it. Here’s how to build outbound links that work well for both.
The Basic HTML Structure
Every outbound link starts with an anchor element. At minimum, you need an opening <a> tag with an href attribute pointing to the external URL, your clickable text, and a closing </a> tag:
<a href="https://example.com">descriptive text here</a>
By default, clicking this link navigates the visitor away from your page in the same browser tab. If you want the link to open in a new tab instead, add target="_blank":
<a href="https://example.com" target="_blank">descriptive text here</a>
When you use target="_blank", you should also add rel="noopener" for security. Without it, the newly opened page can potentially access your page’s window object, which creates a vulnerability called “reverse tabnapping.” The full tag looks like this:
<a href="https://example.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">descriptive text here</a>
Most modern browsers handle this automatically now, but including the attribute explicitly is still good practice.
When to Open Links in a New Tab
Opening every outbound link in a new tab might seem helpful, but the W3C accessibility guidelines recommend against it as a default. New windows and tabs can disorient visitors, especially people using screen readers or those who have difficulty perceiving visual content. Two situations where a new tab genuinely makes sense:
- Your visitor is in the middle of a multi-step process. If someone is filling out a form on your page and you’re linking to help documentation or a reference, opening that link in the same tab would destroy their progress.
- Your visitor is logged into a secure area. Navigating away could end their session, so a new tab lets them check an external reference without losing access.
For standard content pages like blog posts or informational articles, letting links open in the same tab is perfectly fine. Your visitor can always right-click to open in a new tab if they prefer. If you do use target="_blank", the W3C recommends giving readers advance warning, either through nearby text like “(opens in a new tab)” or a small icon next to the link.
Writing Effective Anchor Text
Anchor text is the clickable, visible portion of your link. Google uses it to understand what the linked page is about, and your readers use it to decide whether the link is worth clicking. Good anchor text is descriptive, concise, and relevant to both your page and the page you’re linking to.
A quick test from Google’s own guidelines: read only the anchor text, out of context, and check whether it’s specific enough to make sense by itself. If someone reading just the linked words has no idea what page they’d land on, you need better anchor text.
Avoid generic phrases like these:
- “Click here” or “Read more”
- Linking the word “website” or “article” by itself
- Bare URLs pasted into your text
Instead, make the linked text describe the destination. Rather than writing “click here to see the study,” write “a 2024 study on remote work productivity” as the anchor text. The surrounding sentence matters too. The words before and after your link give additional context to both readers and search engines, so avoid stacking multiple links right next to each other. Space them out within your paragraphs so each link has enough surrounding text to be understood.
One thing to avoid: stuffing keywords into anchor text. Google explicitly flags this as a spam policy violation. Write the anchor text naturally. If it feels like you’re forcing keywords in, you’ve gone too far.
Using Rel Attributes for SEO
The rel attribute tells search engines about the nature of your link. For standard outbound links to trustworthy sources you’re citing editorially, you don’t need any special rel value. These “followed” links pass ranking credit to the destination page, which is how the web’s link ecosystem is designed to work.
But three situations call for specific attributes:
rel="sponsored"marks links that exist because of a paid relationship, whether that’s an advertisement, a sponsorship, or any other compensation agreement. Google requires this (orrel="nofollow") on paid links to avoid what they consider link schemes.rel="ugc"stands for user-generated content. Use it on links that appear in comments, forum posts, or any section where your visitors, not your editorial team, create the content.rel="nofollow"tells search engines you don’t want to endorse the linked page or pass ranking credit to it. This is the general-purpose option when you need to link somewhere but don’t want to vouch for it.
You can combine these attributes. For instance, rel="ugc sponsored" works for a paid link inside user-generated content. Adding nofollow alongside the newer attributes, like rel="nofollow ugc", provides backward compatibility with older tools that only recognize nofollow.
Google treats all three attributes as “hints” rather than strict directives, meaning they use them alongside other signals to decide how to handle each link. If you already have nofollow tags on existing links, there’s no need to go back and change them. The newer attributes are optional refinements, not replacements.
Putting It All Together
Here’s what a well-constructed outbound link looks like for each common scenario:
Standard editorial link (citing a source you trust):
<a href="https://example.com/research">a 2024 analysis of housing costs</a>
Paid or sponsored link:
<a href="https://example.com/product" rel="sponsored">ProductName's budgeting tool</a>
Link in a comment section or forum:
<a href="https://example.com" rel="ugc nofollow">linked resource</a>
Link that needs to open in a new tab (user is mid-form or logged in):
<a href="https://example.com/help" target="_blank" rel="noopener">formatting guidelines</a>
Links in CMS Platforms
If you’re using WordPress, Squarespace, Wix, or a similar content management system, you rarely need to write raw HTML. Most editors let you highlight text, click a link icon, and paste the URL. Look for a toggle or checkbox labeled “Open in new tab” if you want that behavior. For rel attributes, WordPress’s block editor includes fields for link relationships when you expand the link settings. Other platforms may require you to switch to an HTML or code view to add rel="sponsored" or rel="nofollow" manually.
If you’re linking to external sites frequently, some CMS plugins can automatically add rel="noopener" to all target="_blank" links or flag outbound links for review. These save time but aren’t strictly necessary if you’re comfortable editing your link attributes directly.
How Many Outbound Links to Include
There’s no fixed rule for how many outbound links a page should have. Google doesn’t penalize pages for linking out generously, and linking to high-quality sources can actually strengthen your content’s credibility. The key is relevance. Every outbound link should exist because it adds value for your reader, whether it’s a source backing up a claim, a tool you’re recommending, or a deeper explanation of something you’ve mentioned briefly.
If you find yourself adding links just to hit some number, stop. A 1,000-word blog post might naturally include three outbound links or twelve, depending on the topic. Let the content dictate the count. The only real caution is linking to low-quality or spammy sites, which can hurt your own page’s trustworthiness in Google’s eyes. Link to sources you’d be comfortable recommending in person.