To check outbound links on one page, open it in your browser and run a one-line console script, or view the source and search for href. For a whole site, crawl it with a free tool such as Screaming Frog (up to 500 URLs) and open its External tab. Then read three things: how many links there are, their rel values and where they point.
You have a page that an audit tool flagged for "too many external links", and you're not sure which links it means. Or a site owner has offered to place your link on one of their articles, and before you agree you want to know what else that article already links to. Both jobs come down to listing every link on the page that leaves the domain.
How do I check outbound links on a single page?
Your browser can list every outbound link on a page in about ten seconds, without installing anything. Open the page, press F12 (or right-click and choose Inspect), go to the Console tab, paste this line and press Enter:
[...document.querySelectorAll('a[href]')].filter(a => a.host && a.host !== location.host).map(a => [a.href, a.rel || '(no rel)', a.textContent.trim()])
It prints each external link with its rel value and anchor text. Add .length to the end to get only the count. The count includes links in the menu, sidebar and footer, so look at the list as well as the number.
Checking without the console
Press Ctrl+U (Cmd+Option+U on a Mac) to view the page source, then use Find to search for href="http. Each match is an absolute link; the ones that don't contain the page's own domain are outbound. This is slower, but it shows the raw HTML before any script runs, which is closer to what a crawler first receives.
Using a browser extension
Link-checking extensions highlight outbound and nofollow links on the page with one click. They are convenient if you vet pages often. Check the permissions before installing: an extension that can "read and change all your data on all websites" sees everything you browse.
How do I find all external links on my website?
A crawler is the only free way to see every outbound link across a whole site, because it visits each page and records every link it finds. Screaming Frog SEO Spider lists "all external links, their status codes and source pages", and its free version is limited to 500 URLs per crawl.
- Enter your homepage URL and start the crawl.
- Open the External tab to see every outbound URL and its HTTP status.
- Click a URL and open the Inlinks tab at the bottom to see which of your pages link to it, with the anchor text and whether the link is followed.
- Filter by status code to find external links that now return 404 or redirect.
Google Search Console won't do this job. Its Links report shows links from other sites to yours and links between your own pages, not the links your pages send out. For the incoming side, see how to check internal links and how to track backlinks.
What should I look for when checking outbound links?
The useful part of the check is reading the list, not counting it. Four things matter.
The rel attribute on each link
Google's guide to qualifying outbound links defines three values: rel="sponsored" for paid placements, rel="ugc" for comments and forum posts, and rel="nofollow" when the others don't apply. A normal editorial link needs no rel at all; there is no "dofollow" attribute. If you sell or swap placements, the paid ones should carry sponsored.
Where the links point
Open a sample of the destinations. Links to sources, tools and related articles are what a good page looks like. Links to casinos, payday loans or unrelated shops in a gardening post suggest the page sells placements, which is the pattern behind link farms.
How many there are relative to the content
There is no fixed limit; how many outbound links per page is too many explains where the old 100-link figure came from. A useful test is the ratio: when links outnumber paragraphs, the page is turning into a list.
Broken and redirected links
Links that now return 404 or redirect several times send readers to dead ends. The crawler's status codes find them; update or remove each one.
How do I check a page's outbound links before a link exchange?
Before you accept a link on someone else's article, run the console line on that exact article and read the result. A worked example: a 900-word post shows 46 external links, 31 of them in the body, pointing to a loan broker, a casino review site and a CBD shop. That page is a placement page, and a link there will look like one. A 1,500-word guide with 8 links in the body, pointing to studies, tools and two related blogs is the kind of page you want to be on.
Three quick checks cover most of it:
- Body links only. Ignore the menu and footer; count links inside the article text.
- Topic match. Most destinations should relate to the article's subject.
- No unmarked paid links. If the page openly sells placements and none carry
sponsored, the site is ignoring Google's guidance, and that risk travels with your link.
On Backlinkster, the link you submit must be an article URL on your own domain, not a homepage, so this check is the same one your partner can run on your page. How a swap works covers the rest. If you want to go deeper on one page's numbers, is a link from a page with 200 outbound links worth it works through that case.
Frequently asked questions
Is there a free outbound link checker?
Yes. Your browser's developer console is free and works on any page. For a whole site, Screaming Frog's free version crawls up to 500 URLs per crawl and lists every external link with its status code.
Does Google Search Console show my outbound links?
No. The Links report covers external links pointing to your site and internal links between your pages. To list the links your pages send to other sites, use a crawler or the browser console.
How can I tell if an outbound link is nofollow?
Inspect the link, or run the console line above, and read its rel attribute. A value containing nofollow, sponsored or ugc tells Google not to treat it as a normal editorial link. No rel attribute means it is a followed link.
Do outbound links hurt my SEO?
Relevant outbound links to useful sources don't hurt. Problems come from paid links without rel="sponsored", links to spam or malware, and pages so full of links that the content disappears. Google treats unnatural links from your site as grounds for a manual action.
How often should I check outbound links?
Check each new page when you publish it, and crawl the whole site every few months. External pages move or disappear over time, so broken outbound links build up even if you never edit an old post.
Related: How many outbound links per page is too many? · How to check internal links · Internal vs external links · Is a link from a page with 200 outbound links worth it? · What is a link farm?