Links to Websites

UPDATED on April 18, 2018

Summary: Links to other pages inside the LCC Websites, or to websites outside the LCC system, provide a convenient way for people to access related information, as well as improve the way search engines rank your page.

How do search engines rank your page?

Search engines consider pages with the most links leading to them, to be the most important pages on the Internet, thus they are more likely to be returned when a person searches for them.

Linking back and forth between web pages inside the LCC Websites is highly recommended. Doing so allows you to feature a single topic on your page, which also helps with search engine optimization (SEO). If you need to reference an important topic on your web page, that is covered in more detail on another page, simply link to that page.

Components of a Link

Links to web pages and documents contain all of these components:

  • Link Text - part that is visibly clickable, and that communicates where the links goes when clicked. May also be referred to as 'Link to Display'.
  • Hyperlink - address the link routes to when clicked. May also be referred to as 'URL'.
  • Title - description of link that appears when hovering, and that provides accessiblity.
  • Target - how link opens (existing window or new window).

Best Practices Resources

Link to Pages Inside the LCC Website

Always use the *dependency tag.

  1. Key in your link text and select it.
    1. Review best practices for Link Text and Appearance
  2. Click the 'Insert/Edit Link' button on your toolbar.
  3. Click the 'Browse' icon (looks like a camera) next to the URL field.
  4. Navigate to the file you want to link to.
    1. If you wish to link to a page in another site inside the LCC system, i.e., link to a public page from the Faculty & Staff site, you need to select the correct 'site'. Click 'site', then select 'public' (for public website), or 'internal' (for faculty & staff).
  5. Select that file and click 'Insert'. Doing so inserts the *dependency tag.
  6. Add a title in the title field. This is the text that displays when a user hovers over the link. It is necessary for ADA compliance.
  7. Click OK.
  8. Save page.
  9. Submit for publish.

*Dependency tag is a special code that identifies the page. When inserted into the URL field it looks like this {{f:########}}. Using it prevents the link from breaking if the page is moved or the page title changes.

Links to Pages Outside the LCC website

  1. Follow steps 1 - 2 above.
  2. Insert the link into the URL field (you will have copied to your clipboard beforehand)
  3. Add a title (see #7 - above)
  4. Under 'Target', select 'New Window'
  5. Click OK

Note: Selecting new window forces the link to open in a new window. We do this because we don't want to send visitors off our site.