External links: Insert/Edit Link

Understand what you’re doing

The instructions in this lesson are for creating an external link that points from your website to an outside website or Internet resource.

If you need to create an internal link that points from your website to another page on your website, skip ahead to Internal Links: Insert Link To Page.

You can also read the refresher on the difference between external and internal links.

  1. Select a word or phrase that you want to turn into a link

    Remember to select descriptive words that let your users know where they will go or what information they will find when they click on your links.

    Examples (these are fake links, so don’t bother clicking on them):

    • Good: “The Foobar 3000 is the most advanced widget on the market today.” Why? Users know if they click on that link, they will get information about the Foobar 3000.

    • Good: “You will find details of all of our products at our Parent Company.” Why? Users know that they will go to another site, that of your parent company.

    • Bad: “To find out more about the Foobar 3000, click here.” Why? The words “click here” are unnecessary. The important part is the Foobar 3000, so make that the link.

    • Bad: “We’re very excited about our upcoming merger with Big Co. Read more.” Why? The words “Read more” are unnecessary and uncommunicative. The part about Big Co is the key, so make that the link.

  2. Press the Insert/Edit Link button.

    The Insert/Edit Link panel will open.

  3. In the Insert/Edit Link panel, fill in the Link URL.

    Type the address of the webpage or Internet resource to which visitors should go when they click on the hyperlinked word or phrase.

    Here are some examples:

    http://www.nytimes.com
    This link takes visitors to the front page of The New York Times website.
    http://www.nytimes.com/ref/movies/1000best.html
    This link takes visitors to page inside The New York Times website about the best 1,000 movies ever made.
    mailto:websanity@websanity.com
    This link creates an email link, so that when visitors click on it, a message is automatically created, ready to be sent to the email address. You have to include the mailto: in front of the email address, without any spaces.

    As for the other fields in the Insert/Edit Link panel:

    Target
    You do not need to change this; in fact, WebSanity urges you not to change it.
    Title
    You do not need to enter anything here.
    Class
    You do not need to change this.

  4. When you’re ready to commit your changes and create your link, press the Insert button.

You’ve created an external link to another website!

This lesson was about creating external links, while the next one is about creating internal links. Regardless of which kind you create, you remove both kinds of links using the same button.

←  What's the Difference Between External & Internal Links?
Internal links: Link To Page →
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