Can't bind to 'routerLink' since it isn't a known property

You need to add RouterModule to imports of every @NgModule() where components use any component or directive from (in this case routerLink and <router-outlet>.

declarations: [] is to make components, directives, pipes, known inside the current module.

exports: [] is to make components, directives, pipes, available to importing modules. What is added to declarations only is private to the module. exports makes them public.

See also https://angular.io/api/router/RouterModule#usage-notes

You are missing either the inclusion of the route package, or including the router module in your main app module.

Make sure your package.json has this:

"@angular/router": "^3.3.1"

Then in your app.module import the router and configure the routes:

import { RouterModule } from '@angular/router';

imports: [
        RouterModule.forRoot([
            {path: '', component: DashboardComponent},
            {path: 'dashboard', component: DashboardComponent}
        ])
    ],

Update:

Move the AppRoutingModule to be first in the imports:

imports: [
    AppRoutingModule.
    BrowserModule,
    FormsModule,
    HttpModule,
    AlertModule.forRoot(), // What is this?
    LayoutModule,
    UsersModule
  ],

I'll add another case where I was getting the same error but just being a dummy. I had added [routerLinkActiveOptions]="{exact: true}" without yet adding routerLinkActive="active".

My incorrect code was

<a class="nav-link active" routerLink="/dashboard" [routerLinkActiveOptions]="{exact: true}">
  Home
</a>

when it should have been

<a class="nav-link active" routerLink="/dashboard" routerLinkActive="active" [routerLinkActiveOptions]="{exact: true}">
  Home
</a>

Without having routerLinkActive, you can't have routerLinkActiveOptions.