How can PHP developers effectively link an external CSS file to a PHP file to customize styling?

To link an external CSS file to a PHP file, developers can use the <link> tag in the PHP file's <head> section. This allows for easy customization of styling across multiple PHP files by simply updating the external CSS file.

&lt;!DOCTYPE html&gt;
&lt;html&gt;
&lt;head&gt;
    &lt;link rel=&quot;stylesheet&quot; type=&quot;text/css&quot; href=&quot;styles.css&quot;&gt;
&lt;/head&gt;
&lt;body&gt;
    &lt;h1&gt;Hello, world!&lt;/h1&gt;
&lt;/body&gt;
&lt;/html&gt;