The hyperlink tool will expect two inputs: your anchor text (sometimes called “target text” or similar) and the full URL or web address of the link. If you highlight your anchor text before clicking on the link tool, most interfaces will automatically populate your highlighted text as the anchor text.
Open the URL you want to link in a browser, copy the URL, and paste it into the hyperlink tool. Save the change, and the text in your paragraph will appear as colored, underlined text. Save the page to save your new link. You can test it by clicking on the anchor text.
How to create a hyperlink on a Microsoft Word document
In Microsoft Word, there may be differences between versions. In general, you can select your anchor text, right-click, and select “link” or “hyperlink” (depending on the version). You’ll paste your URL in the “Address” field. You can also select files on your computer or linked cloud storage locations to display when the anchor text is selected.
Insert a link in an email campaign
As with a website, the exact format of tools and user actions will vary with your provider. In general, though, you’ll use the same actions – selecting the text, right-clicking or selecting an edit hyperlink button, and entering the URL using copy/paste.
The majority of hyperlinks are to other web locations, but link functionality can be used for other actions as well – to open a file, for example, as with our Microsoft Word instructions above. Another option is to open a new email from the reader to a pre-populated email address. This little tidbit is often used in email campaigns – for example, with a line like “Have questions? Email us!” The “Email us!” text is hyperlinked text, but when clicked, instead of navigating to a web page, the action opens an email. This is “Mailto:” functionality, which you can read more about on our webpage (See what we did there?).
Email links should be closely targeted to the reason for the email. Email hyperlinks are conversion tools or references to resources, as with any other link – but they don’t work to build your web presence in the same way as links that live at known and searchable web addresses.
Add a link in HTML
Creating hyperlinks directly in Hypertext Markup Language, commonly just called HTML, requires some basic programming knowledge. The <a> tag tells the system, "create hyperlink". HTML uses to begin a command and </a> to end the command. The anchor text displays between <a> and </a>.
Standard hyperlinks use a hyperlink reference ‘href’ command after the a, like this: <a href = http://www.mailchimp.com > Mailchimp website < /a > . The URL is referenced after the ‘=’, in this case http://www.mailchimp.com > . The anchor text that would display in the paragraph is ‘Mailchimp website’.
4 Hyperlinking best practices
Poorly built or maintained hyperlinks can damage an organization’s online reputation, lose out on sales opportunities, and frustrate your readers. Whether you’re managing content for a small business or larger enterprises, understanding best practices for hyperlinking can help you make the most of the time, effort, and investment you put into your online presence.