Hyperlink Best Practices

Knowing how to format a link, how to link to internal and external sites and how to link to documents will help make your site easy to use.

Hyperlinks are foundational to website functionality. When linking to websites, documents, videos or an email correspondence, it’s important to format your links appropriately. When adding hyperlinks to your website, follow these best practices.

On this Page:

Effective Link Text

As a best practice, link text should be as specific as possible.

Avoid link text with the full URL text, or using the term “click here.” It makes your page difficult to scan.

Instead, hyperlink the page or document title or link a short description of the page or document. 

Be clear about what a visitor can expect when they click a link. For example, a link to learn more about a specific program or initiative should not send a visitor to a contact form. 

Examples of What to Do

  • For more information, visit Undergraduate Admissions.
  • TU’s top-ranked graduate programs respond to the emerging work force needs of the region and the nation — from cybersecurity to health care.

Examples of What Not to Do

Internal Linking

Dependency Tags

Whenever you create a hyperlink to a page or document on the TU website, you should use dependency tags. A dependency tag is a code identifier that associates a given hyperlink to a page or document.

Using a dependency tag:

  • assures your hyperlink will work even if the structure of your website changes.
  • helps us manage page and document deletions by creating a notification for system administrators informing them of all the links that will be impacted by the deletion
Screenshot of a dependency tag in TU’s content management system.
Screenshot of a dependency tag in TU’s content management system.

Keep Internal Links in the Current Tab

When linking to files within the CMS — either documents or webpages — make sure to open all links that point to a TU digital property in the current window.

Linking to External Content

Open External Links in a New Tab

External websites are those websites not built within the Towson University domain (www.towson.edu).

To keep our audience on our site, set all external site links to open in a new browser tab. 

External links include links to external websites, videos, PDFs and other documents. When adding an external link, make sure you set the “target” for the link in the “Insert Link” pop-up window to open in a new window. 

The Insert Link pop-up window

Do Make the Link Open in a New Tab

Don't Make the Link Open in the Same Window

Label Documents and Videos

Add a description (as part of the link name) in a parenthesis after the link title. This will make it clear to your audience that they are being taken to a document (or external video link) rather than being taken to a webpage.

Examples of What to Do

Examples of What Not to Do

Adding Email Links

When adding an email link, add the link after the name of an individual contact. This makes clear both the email address and the name of the contact.

Example of What to Do

  • For items relating to content strategy, contact Rick Ivy, .

Example of What Not to Do

  • For items relating to content strategy, contact .