How to Add Hyperlinks to Your Web Page

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One of the attractions of World Wide Web documents is the capability to add hyperlinks. Hyperlinks are highlighted text which, when clicked on, can transport the reader to a different document, or even a totally different website. In other words, hyperlinks are the basic navigation tool of the World Wide Web.

It's very easy to add simple hyperlinks to your HTML documents using the <A> (anchor) tag. The anchor tag has four sections:

In the link above, HREF= is an attribute that tells the browser program what action to take when the link is activated. The highlighted text is the item that the reader will see as being clickable.

A link can be on its own line, or can be part of a paragraph, as in the example below:
<P>If you're interested in multimedia, you can get more information from <A HREF="http://www.macromedia.com">Macromedia</A>, the industry leader.</P>
When viewed in a browser, the above paragraph will look like this:
If you're interested in multimedia, you can get more information from Macromedia, the industry leader.

The word Macromedia, which was the highlighted text in the tag, is bolded and underlined. It will also be in a different color when viewed in a browser. This is a signal to the reader that it can be clicked on. When clicked, the reader will be transported to the Macromedia website at http://www.macromedia.com.

Hyperlinks can also take you to a different page in your own website, or even a different section of the page containing the hyperlink (this is called branching). Linking to a different page on your own website is very similar to the link shown above. You would just substitute the location of the new page for the www.macromedia.com in the attribute.

Branch hyperlinking to different sections of the same page is a little more complex. First, you may be wondering why you’d want to section off a page like this. It makes sense when you have a long page of text to break it up into sections for easier reading. To set up branch hyperlinks, the basic process is to name each section, then have the appropriate hyperlink jump the reader to the named section. Here’s an example of a hyperlink and its connected section:
<A HREF=#STEPTWO>Step Two: Mailing The Letter</A>
(farther down the page)
<A NAME="STEPTWO"></A>
<H3>Step Two: Mailing The Letter</H3>
<P>Now you are ready to mail the letter</P>

As before, the highlighted text in the link (Step Two etc.) will be bold and underlined. When the reader clicks on the hyperlink’s highlighted text, the browser starts searching down the page for an anchor with the name STEPTWO. When it finds it, the section will display at the top of the screen. In effect, by clicking on the hyperlink, the reader is instantly transported to the section they want to read, rather than having to scroll down the page searching for the information. This is a reader-friendly way of setting up a long web page.

HOT LINKS
A final word on hyperlinks is the hot links page. Many websites you’ll visit will have a hot links page consisting of hyperlinks to other websites that the owner of the website thought were interesting.
Why do this? Doesn’t this encourage people to leave your website? Don’t we want people to spend as much time as possible at our website, rather than someone else’s website?

Well, that’s true. However, keep in mind that a successful website provides useful information for your visitors. If you find websites that would be of use to people who are interested in what you have set up a page of links. Encourage your readers to bookmark your page so they can return easily. Your links page will also help you remember all those cool websites that you want to revisit.