Can I Put a Link to Another Website on My Website?

Yes. You can link to another website without asking permission, and you almost never need it. A hyperlink is a citation — it points at a public address, it doesn't copy anything, and courts in the US and EU have repeatedly landed on the same conclusion: pointing at a publicly available page isn't republishing it. The web is built on this. If linking required permission, there would be no web.

The interesting question isn't whether you're allowed. It's the handful of situations where linking gets complicated, and what outbound links do to your own SEO.

Why linking is legal by default

A link is an address, not content. When you link to a page, you're telling a reader where to go — the destination server delivers its own content, under its own terms, with its own ads and analytics. You haven't reproduced their work.

This is why "link permission requests" are so rare in practice, and why most site owners are delighted to receive links. A link sends them traffic. Blocking it would be self-harm.

A few sites publish "linking policies" demanding you request approval first. These are, in the vast majority of cases, unenforceable theater — you're not bound by terms on a page you never agreed to, simply because you referenced its address. Be aware they exist; don't organize your site around them.

Where linking actually gets complicated

Four real edge cases, none of which affect ordinary linking:

Framing and embedding. Displaying someone else's page or media inside your own layout, so it looks like your content, is a different act than linking to it. This is where litigation happens. Embedding an official YouTube video is fine — the platform provides the embed and the rights holder chose to publish there. Wrapping someone's article in your frame is not.

Linking to infringing or illegal material. Knowingly pointing users to pirated files, leaked data, or illegal content can create liability, especially if you do it commercially or for profit. Linking in good faith to something you didn't know was infringing is treated very differently from running a link index for pirated content.

Deep linking behind a paywall. Linking to a specific interior page is normally fine and expected. Deliberately routing users around a paywall or login is a fight you can lose.

Defamation by association. Linking to a false, damaging claim while endorsing it can carry the same risk as saying it. The link isn't the problem — your endorsement is.

Note the common thread: none of these are about the link. They're about copying, endorsing, or circumventing. Ordinary linking sits nowhere near any of them.

One honest caveat: this is general information about how linking works, not legal advice. If you're dealing with a specific dispute or a takedown notice, talk to an actual lawyer.

The rule that trips up more sites than the law does

Here's what actually gets sites in trouble, and it isn't a court — it's Google.

If you were paid to place a link, it must be marked. Money, free product, an affiliate commission, a sponsorship — any of it. Use rel="sponsored" (or rel="nofollow") so the link doesn't pass ranking signals. Passing PageRank in exchange for compensation is a direct violation of Google's spam policies, and it's enforced against both ends of the deal.

<a href="https://example.com" rel="sponsored">Our sponsor</a>

Also use rel="ugc" or nofollow on links your users submit — comments, forum posts, profiles — since you didn't vouch for those. Dofollow vs nofollow links covers when each attribute applies.

This is the one linking rule with real teeth. Most people worry about the imaginary legal risk and ignore the actual policy risk sitting in their affiliate footer.

Do outbound links hurt your SEO?

No — and the fear that they do has made a lot of sites worse.

The myth is that links "leak" your authority, so you should hoard it by never linking out. It's wrong in both directions. Linking to good sources doesn't drain a finite tank, and refusing to link doesn't concentrate anything. What it does is make your page look like it was written by someone who has never read anything.

Relevant outbound links to credible sources are a positive quality signal. They give Google context about your topic, they help readers, and they're a defining trait of content written by someone who actually knows the subject. Every serious reference work on earth cites its sources.

Where outbound links do hurt:

Linking to spam. Consistently pointing at low-quality or hacked sites tells Google what neighborhood you're in.
Selling dofollow links. The policy violation above.
A wall of unrelated links. A page whose only purpose is outbound links to trading partners — the old /links.html pattern — is a recognized spam shape.

Link out freely to things worth reading. Just don't sell the signal.

Linking out on purpose: what it's worth to you

Once you accept that outbound links are safe, they become a tool.

The obvious use is quality. But the underrated one is that linking is how relationships start. Site owners notice who sends them traffic. A genuine, well-placed link to someone's work is the single warmest opening you have for the conversation that ends in them linking back — which is why finding link building partners so often begins with linking first.

That reciprocity is normal and always has been. Two relevant sites citing each other inside real content is how the web has worked since it existed — see reciprocal links and SEO for where the line falls between citation and scheme. What Google penalizes is excessive trading with no editorial substance, not the existence of a link in both directions.

Backlinkster formalizes exactly that: you're matched with a real site owner in a related niche, you each place a genuine in-content link on a real page, and the system verifies both are live and dofollow. No money changes hands — which is precisely what keeps it on the right side of the one rule that actually matters.

The bottom line

You can link to any public page you want. No permission, no notice, no policy compliance. The narrow exceptions are about framing, endorsing illegal material, and paywall circumvention — not about linking. The rule that will actually bite you is Google's: if you were paid for it, mark it sponsored. Otherwise, link out generously to good work. It makes your content better, it doesn't cost you a thing, and it's the most reliable way to get noticed by the people you want links from.