If you are a regular article reader, you must have noticed how certain words sometimes link to other web pages or third-party websites in South Africa. Why do they do that? And how do they do that? Well, the simple answer is to provide your readers with additional resources and references. Another answer is SEO. How does that work? Let’s see how linking web pages in HTML works and why we do that in South Africa.
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How do you link Web Pages in HTML?
It’s simple, really. There are two ways to link web pages in HTML in South Africa.
via the HTML code
In HTML, to link a web page to a certain word or phrase, you can use the <a>, meaning anchor tag. The basic syntax is as follows.
<a href="URL">Link Text</a>
Let’s break down the components of the anchor tag:
<a>: This is the opening tag of the anchor element.href: This is an attribute that specifies the target URL (Uniform Resource Locator) where the link will take you when clicked. You replace “URL” with the actual web address (e.g., “https://www.example.com“).- Link Text: This is the text that will be displayed as the clickable link. It’s what the user sees on the webpage. You replace “Link Text” with the text you want to use for your link.
Here’s an example of an anchor tag in action.
<a href="https://www.example.com">Visit Example.com</a>
Which would turn the text “Visit Example.com” into a link like this (this link leads to our homepage).
You can also do the following things with the anchor <a> tag.
1. Leading your readers to another page within the same directory.
<a href="page2.html">Go to Page 2</a>
For example, go to our Blog Page, scroll down and click on Older Entries (or Newer Entries if applicable). This is an example of linking to another page in the same directory, as the URL in the address bar does not change even though you do navigate to a different page.
2. Linking to a downloadable file such as a .PDF.
<a href="document.pdf">Download Document</a>
For example, if you click here, you can view (or download directly, if on the smartphone) a PDF file containing a sample essay on education.
3. Linking to an email address.
<a href="mailto:email@example.com">Send an Email</a>
For example, you can click contact us in this article to directly send us an email with your queries or orders.
via Ctrl + K, literally
In 2023, almost everyone uses a website builder. And when you are writing content in a website builder, you really do not have to worry about a front-end coding language like HTML, unless you really need to do something very specific. For example, linking to an email address still may require some HTML knowledge.
However, if you are a content/article writer like me, linking different links to your article is very simple. The Ctrl + K is a shortcut for linking web links to certain keywords in your article. It looks like this on WordPress.
“Oops, I missed an article before the phrase ‘website builder’.”
So, why do we do this?
As stated in the beginning, linking web pages in HTML in South Africa has two distinct benefits.
The User Experience. When you have readers on your website, you want them to feel like the content they are consuming is valuable to them. Linking web pages and resources is one great way to attract their interest in the subject you are trying to explain. Articles are supposed to provide some value to a reader’s knowledge or experience. If a link can certainly contribute to this value, then you should not hesitate to add them; whether they are your own links or third-party links.
Search Engine Optimisation. A search engine concludes that an article with a balanced crowd of useful links is better than an article without any links or heavily flooded with links. Why? Because a search engine also focuses on delivering the most useful and impactful content as well. Hence, the SEO determines these conventional rules to deliver the best of the best. Hence, having a proper balance of useful links in your article contributes to your website’s SEO.
Related: Common HTML Tags that Improve Website SEO in South Africa
Of course, there are more factors that contribute to the SEO of a website than just linking web pages. If you are looking for SEO assistance in Cape Town, South Africa, feel free to check our Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) services for more information.
Conclusion
So, this is how you link web pages in HTML. While the second method is more popular and convenient to use, having basic HTML knowledge can be helpful for you. It’s no rocket science, it’s just a line of code.
If you require any assistance with HTML coding or web design in South Africa, feel free to give us a call. Digital Lime Green is a Cape Town-based website design and SEO agency, aiming at providing high-quality services for small and medium businesses. Contact us for more information or feel free to check out our website.
