Links

Well-written links will help people find the content they are looking for and follow links with confidence. They will also help you make your content more accessible and improve search engine rankings.

Tips for web writers

  • Write clear and meaningful link text
    • Avoid links like ‘click here’ and ‘read more’
    • Wherever possible, the link text alone should fully describe the linked content
  • Use words familiar to your users
    • Use keywords (users’ search terms)
    • Avoid jargon and abbreviations unless well known to your target audience
  • Begin with the most meaningful words
    • Avoid starting links with the same word or phrase (such as ‘read more …’)
  • Avoid using the same link text for links that lead to different places
    • Only duplicate link text when doing otherwise would lead to significant visual clutter
  • Write concisely
    • Avoid wordy lead-ins (such as ‘click here for more on …’ )
    • Avoid long links that may break over a line
    • Don’t write links so short that they no longer make sense
  • Don’t use URLs (web addresses) as the text for links
    • If you think users will print the page, use a print style sheet to display the URLs on the printed version
  • For email links, use the email address as the link text

    • Linking people’s names or job roles might not clearly indicate that the link is an email address
  • For image links, write a text alternative that clearly identifies the linked content
  • Avoid using images of text as links
    • If you must use an image of text, use a large, plain font and ensure there is sufficient colour contrast
  • Never underline text that is not a link
  • Warn users when the link will open a document file

    • Indicate the document type (for example PDF or DOC) and file size within the link text
    • Open documents in a new window
  • Don’t open links in new windows unless you are opening a document or help screen
    • Include a warning in the link text if a new window will open (except where you’ve already included a document format warning)
  • Only include links to directly relevant resources
  • Position links carefully within content
    • Don’t place links beside each other in a sentence (often seen in blog posts), unless you use punctuation to separate them
    • Avoid positioning links within paragraphs where they may break over a line
    • Don’t clutter paragraphs or pages with links scattered through text
    • Consider grouping links below the relevant paragraph or at the end of the page

Print version

Version 1.0, December 2011