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External Links

See every outgoing link from the analyzed site — with link type, attribute, and target page data.

Written by Mike

Every Outgoing Link from Your Site — with Full Attribute Data

The External Links report shows a complete list of outgoing links from the analyzed domain — every page on your site that points to an external destination. Use it to audit outlink attributes, verify that commercial links carry the correct Sponsored tag, and monitor for lost or broken external links.

What you can achieve:

  • Audit outlink attributes: Verify that paid or affiliate links carry the Sponsored attribute and that user-generated content areas are tagged UGC — missing attributes can violate Google's link scheme guidelines.

  • Identify where your site links out: See which pages carry the most outgoing links and which external destinations they point to — then cross-reference against the Malicious Sites report.

  • Track lost external links: Switch to the Lost external links view to find outgoing links that were present during a previous crawl but are no longer detected.

Getting Started

  1. Navigate to Backlink Analysis → External Links in the left sidebar.

  2. Enter a domain (e.g., example.com) into the search bar and click Search.

  3. Review the list of outgoing links sorted by External Links descending.

  4. Filter by Link Attribute = Sponsored to review all paid or affiliate outlinks.

  5. Toggle to the Lost external links view to see outgoing links no longer detected during re-crawl.

  6. Click Export to download in CSV, XLS, or XLSX for further analysis.

Key Metrics Explained

  1. Link source / anchor: The page on your site that contains the outgoing link, with the anchor text shown in green.

  2. Link attributes: Follow, Nofollow, UGC (user-generated content), or Sponsored. Each carries a different signal for search engine bots.

  3. External links: The total count of unique outgoing links from that source page.

  4. Link type: href (standard), redirect, frame, canonical, image, RSS, alternate, or form action.

  5. Target page: The external URL the link points to.

  6. First indexed / Last indexed: Dates when Serpstat first found the outgoing link and last confirmed it was present.

Pro Tip: Find and Fix Untagged Commercial Links

A single untagged paid link can put your site's link profile at risk — this filter finds them all in seconds.

  1. Apply the filter Link Attribute = Follow.

  2. Sort by External Links descending to prioritize high-volume pages first.

  3. Scan the anchor texts. Links that look like paid placements — product names with URLs, affiliate codes — should carry the Sponsored attribute.

  4. Update those links in your CMS to add rel="sponsored".

⚠️ Important: External Links shows all outgoing links Serpstat detected during its last crawl of your domain. The report includes a Lost external links view for links removed since the previous crawl. The Recrawling URL Tool lets you request a manual re-check of up to 500 URLs per day. Credits are not charged. Unused daily credits do not carry over.

❓ Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What is the difference between External Links and External Domains?
​A: External Links shows every individual outgoing link — one row per link. External Domains groups those links by destination domain, showing how many pages on your site link to each external site.
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Q: Can I filter for links added within the last week?
​A: Yes. Use the "Date of link discovery" filter and select "Last 7 days" to see recently added outgoing links.
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Q: How do I export the data?
​A: Click Export to download in CSV, XLS, or XLSX. Connect your Google account in Settings to export directly to Google Sheets or BigQuery.
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Next Steps

  • External Domains — See which external domains your site links to most — grouped by destination.

  • Backlinks — Analyze incoming links to your site with full attribute data.

  • Malicious Sites — Check whether any of your outgoing links point to flagged domains.

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