Only make links that are relevant to the context.
- Provide links that aid navigation and understanding.
- Avoid obvious, redundant, and useless links.
It is counterproductive to hyperlink all possible words. This practice is known as "overlinking".[1] A high density of links can draw attention away from the high-value links that readers would benefit from following. (Example: Lucy went to the store.) Redundant links clutter up the page and make future maintenance harder. A link is analogous to a cross-reference in a print medium. Imagine if every second word in an encyclopedia article were followed by "(see:)". The links should not be so numerous as to make the article harder to read.
This guideline is in dynamic tension with the the goal of building the web.
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What generally should not be linked
In general, do not create links to the following.
- Plain English words, including common units of measurement[2].
- Low added-value items when linked without reason—such as, 1995, 1980s, and 20th century. The names of geographical locations that are likely to be well-known to English-speakers should generally not be linked where, in the context, they are unlikely to be confused with other locations of the same name, and the linked article would not specifically add to readers' understanding of the topic at hand; this includes country names such as United States, UK, Australia, Canada, Germany, India and China, and the names of cities such as New York City, London, Moscow and Paris.
- Subsidiary topics that result in red links (links that go nowhere) to articles that will never be created, such as the names of book chapters.
- The same link multiple times, because redundant links clutter up the page and make future maintenance harder. It is not uncommon to repeat a link that had last appeared much earlier in the article, but there is hardly ever a reason to link the same term twice in the same section. (Table entries are an exception to this; in general each row of a table should be able to stand on its own).
- Individual words when a phrase has its own article. For example, link to "the flag of Tokelau" instead of "the flag of Tokelau". Such a link is more likely to be interesting and helpful to the user, and almost certainly contains links to the more general terms, in this case, "flag" and "Tokelau".
- A page that redirects back to the page the link is on. These circular redirects are frustrating to readers.
- Words in a disambiguation entry other than to the disambiguation target itself. The general rule is "one link per entry" on a disambiguation page; additional links tend to confuse the reader.
What generally should be linked
In general, do create links to:
- Relevant connections to the subject of another article that will help readers to understand the current article more fully (see the example below). This can include people, events and topics that already have an article or that clearly deserve one, as long as the link is relevant to the article in question.
- References to a page with more information, e.g. "Relevant background can be found in Fourier series." Linking items in a list of examples makes them easier to reference as well.
- Technical terms, unless they are fully defined in the article and do not have their own separate article. Sometimes the most appropriate link is an interwiki link to Wiktionary. Consider instead defining technical terms immediately, if this can be worked into the sentence neatly and concisely.
- Word usage that may be confusing to a non-native speaker (or users of other varieties of English). If the word would not be translated in context with an ordinary foreign language dictionary, consider linking to an article or Wiktionary entry to help foreign language readers, especially translators. Check the link for disambiguation, and link to the specific item.
- Geographic place names that are unlikely to be well-known to most English-speakers (Sichuan, Vladivostok, Tamworth, NSW, Hibbing, Minnesota. Place names that refer to more than one location where the referent may not be clear from the context.
Other considerations
Link density
Aim for a consistent link density. Do not link eight words in one sentence and then none in the rest of the article. The introduction of the article may require modification of this rule. For general interest articles, where the links are of the "see also" or "for more information" type, it may be better to not link in the summary, deferring the link until the term is defined later in the article. Numerous links in the summary of an article may cause users to jump elsewhere rather than read the whole summary. For technical articles, where terms in the summary may be uncommon or unusual, and linking is necessary to facilitate understanding, it is permissible and may even be necessary to have a high link density in the introduction.
Excessive links make an article difficult to read. For example, see this archival version of Mean Red Spiders, as compared to this acceptable version.
Subsections
Linking to subsections can be useful, since it can take the reader immediately to the information that is most focused on the original topic. The format for a subsection link is [[Article#Section|name of link]]. For example, to link to the "Culture" subsection of the Oman article, type [[Oman#Culture|culture of Oman]]. When naming a piped link, think about what the reader will believe the link is about; in this example, the piped section-link should not be named "Oman", because the reader will think that link goes to the general article on Oman.
Quotations
Generally avoid linking items within quotations; instead, place links in the surrounding text of the article wherever possible. Do not link or autoformat dates inside quotations.
Dates
Details about when and how to link dates can be found in Wikipedia:Manual of Style (dates and numbers)#Date autoformatting. The three most frequently occurring cases are:
- Stand-alone years, months and days of the week should generally not be linked; however, links to articles on a topic in a specific chronological period, such as 1441 in art, 1982 in film, and 18th century in United States history can add significantly to readers' understanding of the current topic.
- Wikipedia has articles on days of the year, years, decades, centuries and millennia. As a general rule of thumb, link to one of these pages only if it is likely to deepen readers' understanding of a topic. Piped links to pages that are more focused on a topic are possible (1997), but have the disadvantage that readers do not, prima facae, recognize that the link is piped. Piped links cannot be used in full dates if the date-linking function is used.
- Dates that contain day, month and year (25 March 2004, or March 25, 2004) or day and month (25 March, or March 25) (
[[February 10]]) may be linked using MediaWiki's date autoformatting mechanism ( [[25 March]] [[2004]] and [[25 March]], respectively). Careful consideration of the disadvantages and advantages of the autoformatting mechanism should be made before applying it: the mechanism does not work for the vast majority of readers, such as unregistered users and registered users who have not made a setting, and can affect readability and appearance if there are already numerous high-value links in the text. Although autoformatted dates are coded with double square-brackets, as for linking, autoformatting is a quite different mechanism and conception. See Wikipedia:Manual of Style (dates and numbers)#Date autoformatting for the disadvantages of autoformatting in various contexts. In the main text of an article, autoformatting should be used either on none of the month-day and month-day-year dates, or all of them. Consider inserting a non-breaking space between month and day where autoformatting is not used (August 20 or 20 August, and August 20, 2003 or 20 August 2003).
Titles
"As a general rule, do not put links in the bold reiteration of the title in the article's lead sentence or any section title." (from Wikipedia:Manual of Style#Article titles)
Disambiguation pages
"Don't wikilink any other words in the line, unless they may be essential to help the reader determine where they might find the information." (from Wikipedia:Manual of Style (disambiguation pages)#Individual entries)
Example
In the article on Supply and demand, you should:
- almost certainly link microeconomic theory and general equilibrium as these are technical terms that many readers are unlikely to understand at first sight;
- consider linking price and goods only if these common words have technical dimensions that are specifically relevant to the topic (a section-link is generally preferable in this case);
- not link to the "United States" because that is a very large article with no particular connection to supply and demand.
- definitely not link "potato", because it is a common term with no particular relationship to the article on Supply and demand, beyond its arbitrary use as an example of traded goods in that article.
Example of overlinking
An extreme example of overlinking can be found at an old version of the article on Hyperlinks.
Footnotes
- ^ Dvorak, John C. (April 2002). "Missing Links", PC Magazine.
- ^ Examples of common measurements include:
-
- units of time (millisecond, second, minute, hour, day, week, month, year)
- metric units of mass (milligram, gram, kilogram), length (millimetre, centimetre, metre, kilometre), area (mm², etc.) and volume (millilitre, litre, mm³, etc.)
- imperial and US units such as inch, foot, yard, mile, etc.
- combinations of the above (e.g. m/s, ft/s).
- Links may sometimes be helpful where there is ambiguity in the measurement system (such as Troy weight vs Avoirdupois weight) but only if the distinction is relevant.
See also
