Adding Links

Links you can add to a Web page are:

  1. Internal Links link to another page within your website.
  2. External Links go to pages or documents on other websites.
  3. E-mail Links go directly to an individual e-mail address.
  4. Link to a Document links to a PDF, docx, txt, etc. within the website.

Internal Link

To create an internal link, highlight the text and click on the link icon.

Link:

  • Begin typing the title of the page you are searching for, allow time for the site to load available content and select the page when it appears.
  • Click the Save button.

Note: On older websites, you will first select the "Link type" as "Internal path"

About internal links (sometimes called “relative links”)

The link may look like this: “/pagetitle”. Internal links need only the information following the "/" from the URL. We try to make the URLs for site pages on this site “human friendly,” meaning that the URL will reflect the page title. URLs can never have spaces in them, so where we intend a space to exist an underline (_) is used. URL paths are typically all lower case.

External Link

To create an external link, highlight the text and click on the link icon.

Because external links go to websites outside of your site, it is necessary to write in the full URL in the link box, for example: http://www.xxx.pitt.edu. The system should prompt for the http if it is not included.

Often the easiest way to ensure that you have the correct URL (and don’t accidentally mistype something) is simply to copy the URL from the address bar of your browser and then paste it into the link box.

Link:

  • Enter the full URL.
  • Click the Save button.

E-mail Link

To create a link to an email address, highlight the text (typically an e-mail address or someone’s name) and click the link icon.

Link:

  • Enter "mailto:" directly followed by the full e-mail address
  • Click the Save button.

Note: On older websites, you will first select the "Link type" as "E-mail" and only type in the full e-mail address.

Add Documents/PDFs

To link to a document or PDF, highlight the text (typically the text you want to link) and click on the link icon.

Click Open File browser. A new pop-up window will appear. If the document is already on the site, select the file from the column that says ‘File name’ and click Insert file.

Note: On older websites, you will click on "Browse Server"

If the document needs to be uploaded to the site, click on the Upload button and Add file to choose a document from your computer that you want to upload. After finding the document, click Select.

The new file will be added to the list of files in the ‘Name’ column of the table. It will be highlighted by default. Click the Select button at the top of the table to add it to your site or double-click the file. You will be returned to the first pop-up box. Click Save to finish adding the link.

Standards to Follow
Link text should describe the content you are linking to

The W3C recommends against using "click here" and similar phrases because the phrase describes the mechanics. It also negatively impacts accessibility. Screen readers such as JAWS allow users to tab between links and the browser will only read the link text.

  • GOOD: “Apply to the graduate program.”
  • BAD: “Click here” to apply.
Format information to include clear calls to action

Follow the principles of Don’t Make Me Think. Do not force visitors to spend time reading large amounts of information, or clicking through many layers of links in order to find what they are looking for.

  • Avoid burying important links in paragraphs of text. These will not be noticed by visitors who are scanning through your pages.
  • Use landing pages with clearly visible lists of links.