This a post about where and when to use hyperlinks in posts, what they achieve and things to watch out for.
Adding links to your posts will add interactivity and credibility to what you are saying. It also turns a standard black and white post into something which will interest and engage the reader.
What we are trying to avoid are lengthy pieces with nothing but text. It’s no better than reading a newspaper and unless the audience are very interested in the topic they are likely to simply get bored.
The basic convention is that when you are quoting from a piece of writing you should link to it whenever possible. This gives the reader a chance to follow through and verify what you are saying thus adding to the credibility of your post.
For example, take this (fabricated) text:
Wellington City Council officer John Doe said today that he would consider using anisotropic filters on all of the council’s promotional posters.
So the organisation Wellingon City council will have a website and this could be linked to over the words ‘Wellington City Council’. The word ’said’ is also a cue for a link to the source of the statement, possibly to the source of the statement at the council’s site or to an article by a major news organisation. The word anisotropic is likely to be unknown to most people, as it is technical jargon, and a link here to a definition would add interest to the article if there is a nice concise definition available from a trusted source. The last one is ‘posters’ – do they have copies - that you could link to?
You only need to link to a page once per article ie. Wellington City Council in the first par and from then on just plain text.
So what you look for are: Keywords/cues: Organisation names, people’s names, quotes, jargon and difficult concepts.
Be aware that when you link to a page it may not always remain there forever. This causes a problem called ‘dead links’, where the target has been moved, and results in an error message for the reader and frustration.
This can be avoided by checking your links often and linking to major providers (news sites etc) instead of minor ones. There is also the option of copying the entire piece to a page of your own but you MUST ask permission and make it clear where the text comes from. Credit where credit is due.
A word of warning – don’t overdo it - there is nothing more dense than a 200 word post with 100 links. If possible, read what the page you are linking to says and summarise it for the reader. Don’t be lazy and link to things instead of generating original content of your own.
Hopefully that gives you a rough idea of how to do it and should improve your posts no end.
