Selecting content with an external link for presentation based on user interaction with external content

A computer program product, comprising a computer-readable storage medium containing computer program code for:

• accessing a post from a posting user of an online system, the post comprising a link to an external page that is outside the online system;
• determining an opportunity to present content to a viewing user of the online system;
• determining one or more attributes of the external page;
• determining a likelihood of the viewing user viewing the external page for less than a threshold time period based on the attributes of the external page.
• determining a quality metric of the post for the viewing user based on the attributes of the determined likelihood of the viewing user viewing the external page for less than the threshold time period, where the quality metric decreases with a higher determined likelihood of the viewing user viewing the external page for less than the threshold time period;
• computing a value score presenting the post to the viewing user, the value score adjusted upward by the quality metric;
• ranking the post by its value score along with a plurality of other posts;
• selecting, based on the ranking, one or more of:
• the post and the plurality of other posts;
• and
• sending the selected posts for presentation to the viewing user.