# External links

> External links point from your page to other websites. Links to trustworthy sources back up the claims in your text and let readers check them.

- **Check ID:** S13
- **Area:** [SEO](https://be1st.ai/glossary/seo)
- **Tool:** [SEO + Security + Performance](https://be1st.ai/tools/ssp-audit)
- **Page:** https://be1st.ai/glossary/seo/external-links

## Why it matters

External links to authoritative sources signal to search engines that your content is grounded in a broader context and is trustworthy. Google perceives this as a content quality signal.

## In practice

Scientific articles always reference sources and studies. Similarly, a quality blog post about health should link to WHO or professional sources. Pages without external links can appear isolated and untrustworthy.

## How be1st checks it

Checks for the presence of external links to trustworthy sources. The check passes when the page has at least one external link and also reports how many of them carry rel='nofollow'. Linking to high-quality external sources increases the credibility of the page and helps search engines understand the topical context.

[SEO + Security + Performance](https://be1st.ai/tools/ssp-audit), SEO tab.

Every check ends as: Pass, Warning, Fail.

## Sources

- [SEO Starter Guide](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/seo-starter-guide) (Google Search Central)
- [Google Search Essentials](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/essentials) (Google Search Central)

## Related terms

- [Anchor text quality](https://be1st.ai/glossary/seo/anchor-text-quality): Anchor text is the clickable text of a link. Good anchor text says where the link leads, unlike generic phrases such as 'click here' or 'more'.
- [Clean URLs](https://be1st.ai/glossary/seo/clean-urls): A clean URL is a short, readable web address made of words, without long query strings, session IDs, encoded spaces or hashbangs.
- [HTML lang attribute](https://be1st.ai/glossary/seo/html-lang-attribute): The lang attribute on the `<html>` element declares the language of a page. Screen readers, translation tools and search engines rely on it.
- [Favicon](https://be1st.ai/glossary/seo/favicon): A favicon is the small icon of a website that browsers show in tabs and bookmarks and Google shows next to the site name in results.
- [Status code and broken links](https://be1st.ai/glossary/seo/status-code-and-broken-links): An HTTP status code is the server's three-digit answer to a request, such as 200 (OK) or 404 (not found). A broken link points to a page that answers with an error.
- [robots.txt](https://be1st.ai/glossary/seo/robots-txt): robots.txt is a plain text file at the root of a website that tells crawlers which parts of the site they may and may not visit.