If you’re a regular user of LinkedIn, for some time you’ll have seen many users posting links to external websites in the Comments of their post instead of the body.
This started because people who study these things reckoned the LinkedIn algorithm is reach-penalising posts with links in them which take users out of LinkedIn.
Which you can understand to a degree (though I feel it’s unrealistic to expect users to want to stay in the platform and not want to go elsewhere too.)
Until November 2024, I wasn’t aware of any actual data on whether there was evidence to back this belief and practice. Thanks to Richard van der Blom, there was.
Research findings
His October 2024 LinkedIn algorithm research report had some interesting findings (access it here with a voluntary donation).
An outbound link in your post got 40% less reach than one without, but converted post impressions best.
Putting the outbound link the Comments resulted in better reach, but up to 75% less conversion (those who aren’t interested enough to find and click it).
Posting without a link, but then editing the post to add it brought 25% less reach and 40% less conversion.
Link action with goals
So, what should you do?
As with so much in professional communication, it depends what outcome you’re targeting.
If maximising conversion was your top objective, including it in the post was best.
If maximising reach – to get users’ attention but not necessarily have them follow the link – putting it in the Comments was.
Richard’s conclusion then? Don’t include links if you don’t have to.
June 2026 Update
LinkedIn is now reach-penalising posts with outbound links in the Comments – because so many users are trying to hide outbound links there.
Richard van der Blom’s latest research report (which you can buy here) finds that LinkedIn is reach-penalising posts with external links in the Comments by up to 80% of what what their organic reach would have been, particularly those which generate a link preview, and the link is now less likely to be seen in the Comments.
More importantly for your goal of converting interest in the linked content is now impacted by the fact that a link in the Comments now performs “3.4x worse than the same link in the post body”. For Richard’s detailed advice of how to maximise conversion, buy his report (link above).
How many links are ok
Interestingly, LinkedIn has started to accept external links in the post as long as they’re for providing context, not the main point of the post – because Richard’s report finds more than one outbound link in a post only impacts organic reach by 9% versus 18.8% for just one.
So do include links in posts or Articles, but not just one.
For more about the best content tactics, buy his report.
Two tips from me
If what you’re linking to is on LinkedIn, link to that item – because there’s no penalty because users are staying inside the platform.
Watch for link shorteners – if the link is something on LinkedIn, an external shortener will take the user out and then back in, incurring a reach penalty. But get best conversion.
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