An external link, from the perspective of the page it sits on, is a link that points to a different domain.
Definition
An external link, from the perspective of the page it sits on, is a link that points to a different domain. Outbound external links are a normal part of useful content — citing a source, referencing an official register, linking to an operator's licence page — and search engines generally treat linking to relevant, authoritative sources as a mild positive quality signal rather than something to avoid.
The old fear of "leaking PageRank" through outbound links is largely obsolete; the practical concern is what you link to and how.
Outbound links carry a rel attribute that qualifies them. rel="nofollow" tells search engines not to pass ranking signal and not to treat the link as an endorsement. rel="sponsored" marks paid or affiliate links. rel="ugc" marks links in user-generated content. A link with none of these is treated as an editorial, followed link.
Using the right attribute matters: affiliate links to operators should be marked sponsored (or at least nofollow), and unmarked followed affiliate links at scale are a known pattern that search engines act on.
In context
For an iGaming affiliate site, external-link hygiene is a compliance and SEO issue at once. Every monetised link to an operator should carry rel="sponsored" so search engines understand it is a commercial link and so the site is not seen as passing editorial endorsement in exchange for money.
Links to genuine references — regulator registers, responsible-gambling organisations, official operator terms — can be normal followed links, because they are editorial citations that improve the page.
Beyond the rel attribute, the quality of what a page links out to is itself a signal. A review that cites the operator's licence on the regulator's official site, links to the responsible-gambling helpline required in that market, and references its own testing methodology looks like a real editorial resource.
A page whose only outbound links are affiliate links to gambling sites, with no references, no sources and no responsible-gambling links, looks like a thin monetisation page — and in regulated markets, the missing responsible-gambling and licence links are also a compliance failure independent of SEO.
Worked example
An affiliate audits its review template and finds all monetised operator links are followed and unmarked. It adds rel="sponsored" to every affiliate link, adds a followed link to each operator's entry on the relevant regulator register, and adds the market's responsible-gambling helpline.
The change addresses both an SEO risk pattern and a compliance gap.
Related terms
Frequently asked questions
Browse the full iGaming & affiliate glossary — hundreds of EN/RU terms with examples.
← Back to glossary