Hyperlink FAQ's: What is a hyperlink? How do I make a hyperlink? How do hyperlinks work?

Websites today need to be interactive and competitive to attract a large number of visitors and gain popularity  in the top search results pages of major search engines. It’s not enough that a site is well designed and features relevant content. Webmasters still need to do a lot of work to increase traffic using search engine optimization (SEO) techniques.

Since numerous websites exist on the internet these days and majority are competing for the top page rankings of search engines, it’s best to take advantage of the various SEO tools available. This is especially true for ecommerce sites that are profit-oriented.

Some of the vital factors to be considered in order for websites to be successful in their internet marketing efforts are keywords, copy and inbound linking. When it concerns linking, hyperlinks play a major role.

A hyperlink is actually a link or reference in a certain web page to another website or to another page within the same website or domain. It can also access multimedia files such as video and audio clips. This link contains a hypertext composed of words or phrase that describes the content of a certain page that is linked to a particular website. Hiding behind a hyperlink is a URL or web page address.

In tracing its history, it was back in 1965 when the word hyperlink was coined by Ted Nelson. Nelson’s idea of hyperlink was inspired by a well known essay entitled “As We May Think” written by Vannevar Bush. The essay discussed the Memex machine which was capable of linking two pages of information.

A hyperlink can either be words or an image. It is written in the HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) code using the anchor (<a>) tag. HTML is very basic in the creation of websites. Hyperlinks are normally highlighted using a different color or font. As for the style of links, the Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) language can be used.
 
One of the best ways to attract search engine spiders to your website is by using keywords in your HTML hyperlink. For major search engines, hyperlinks that contain keywords have more weight compared to keywords in the text of your copy. Keywords in the copy can still be used in the link provided at the end of the page or a paragraph.
 
Hyperlinks are okay when used sparsely throughout a web page. However, be careful not to overuse it so as not to distract and eventually discourage your readers. Keep in mind that the main goal of search engine optimization (SEO) is to allow a website to satisfy regular readers, keep them coming back and gain profits especially for the commercial websites.
 
As to how to hyperlink effectively, experts suggest that websites should only have at least two and a maximum of five hyperlinks in one copy. Repeating hyperlinks throughout a web page is a no-no. Imagine yourself being directed to another page every time your mouse lands on a keyword or keywords that are always hyperlinked. Wouldn’t you be annoyed? Of course, you will get distracted.  
Hyperlinks are meant to encourage readers to browse further within your website. They are not supposed to be a distraction. Hyperlinks are advantageous when you use them in your site or what is called internal linking.