One of the first things you will need to learn how to do through WordPress, is to create a text link. A text link is a word or group of words that is clickable and allows people to flow through pages of your own site, or to an outside web site or blog. Web site and blog links are what makes the internet special, as you can quickly jump from site to site with a simple click of a button.
In the past, web site links were created with HTML coding, but now thanks to WordPress this can all be done with a few simple clicks of a button — which we are going to walk you through below.
How to Build a Web Site Link through WordPress
Once logged into WordPress, you will need to proceed to the “Add New Post” section, as if you were writing a new article for your site. You can then start writing your article as normal. When you are ready to turn any portion of your text into an active link, simply follow the process below. Special thanks to WordPress for the screenshots and resources below.
- Hight the text portion that you want to turn into a link
- Click the “link” icon in the toolbar above the content area
The icon will look like this in “Visual Mode”.
Or you will see it as a text button in “Text Mode”.
- After clicking the icon, the following popup window will appear.
– URL: This is where you put the address of the site you want to link to go to.
– Title: Use the title of the page you are linking to, or come up with a title of your own.
– Open Link in New Window/Tab: Select this option if you want the link to open in a new browser tab. - If you are building links to internal pages within your site, you also have the option to hit the “Or link to existing content” arrow, which will open a section like the one below. You can then search for relevant articles on your site to link to.
- Once you find an article that you would like to link to within your site, you just need to click on it’s title and then click the “Add Link” button. You will also notice the URL and Title are also imported in as well.
- After going through this process, you will then see an active link within your blog content.
In Visual Mode you will see the active text in blue with an underline.
When using Text Mode, you will see the HTML coding that represents an active link.
Once a link is in place, it can be removed at any time by clicking on the “broken link” button, as shown below.
When to Use Links Within Your Blog Content
There are no specific rules as to when you should or should not use links within your content, however, common practice is to link to an outside web site when you are providing them with credit, referencing their work of mentioning their name on your site. It’s always a good idea to create both internal links and outbound links on your site, as this is something Google likes to see. When linking out to web sites, be sure to link often to legitimate web sites and resources such as major news outlets and authority sites.
One last piece of advice is to also include at least one internal link within each content piece, as this will help people navigate through your site, while also helping it rank higher in the search results.