What Is A Hyperlink?

Date First Published: 13th August 2022

Topic: Web Design & Development

Subtopic: Web Development

Computer Terms & Definitions

Difficulty Level: 3/10

Learn more about what a hyperlink is in this article.

A hyperlink is an embedded link in a HTML document that contains a reference to another URL, file, or portion of a document that is accessible by clicking on it. Clicking on a hyperlink will make the browser leave the current page and open the link for the new page. Hyperlinks can be found on almost all websites and can be identified by the arrow changing to a small hand when the cursor is moved over a hyperlink and the URL appearing at the bottom of the window that says where the link points. For example, the links to the topics below the date of this article are hyperlinks. Hyperlinks basically allow people to quickly jump from one page to another without having to manually type the URL into their web browser. Creating a hyperlink from one document to another is known as hyperlinking.

Note:

Hyperlinks are often blue and underlined so that they can be differentiated from normal text, but they don't have to be. Previously visited hyperlinks may be purple for usability.

Hyperlinks are not limited to pointing to pages on the World Wide Web. PDF files and computer programs can point to files on a local computer.

How To Create A Hyperlink

Creating a hyperlink in a hypertext document is simple. In the example below, the hyperlink points to the 'what-is-rpm' file in the 'articles' directory. The visible hyperlink text would be 'RPM Article'. The <a> tag is used to define the hyperlink. If that page did not exist, it would return a 404 error.

Try clicking on the hyperlink below. It will jump from this article to the article about RPM (Revenue Per Mille).

Hyperlinks can also be embedded in images so that whenever an image is clicked on, it will jump to that page. In the example below, the hyperlink points to the 'what-is-a-website' file in the 'articles' directory. Clicking on the image will open the link for that page.

Try clicking on this image below. It will jump from this article to the article about a website.

Types Of Hyperlinks

Different types of hyperlinks include:

• Text hyperlink - The simplest type of hyperlink. A hyperlink is embedded into a word or phrase and is clickable. Clicking on it will open the link.
• Image hyperlink - A hyperlink embedded into an image that opens the link when clicked on.
• Email hyperlink - A hyperlink embedded into an email address that allows visitors to send an email to this email address just by clicking on it. After clicking, the visitor's email application will open with that email address in the 'to' field.
• Internal link - As suggested in the name, a hyperlink to another page located on the same website.
• Anchor link - Also known as a bookmark hyperlink, a hyperlink to another location on the same page. The element contains a unique id and can be navigated by entering the URL along with the ID, specified with a hashtag. For example, 'https://computerhelp4all.com/articles/what-is-a-hyperlink.html#types-of-hyperlinks' would automatically navigate the visitor to this section of the page. Anchor links are often used for navigation users, to help users skim, and to help them find what they are looking for. For example, the contents box at the top of this article contains anchor links.
• External link - Any hyperlink pointing from one website to a different website located on a different domain name. Inbound and outbound links are types of external links.
• Inbound link - A hyperlink pointing to a page on the webmaster's website. For example, if the owner of Website A had a hyperlink from another website pointing to theirs, that would be an inbound link. An inbound link is the same thing as a backlink.
• Outbound link - A hyperlink from a webmaster's website to another page. For example, if the owner of Website A had a hyperlink from their website pointing to another website, that would be an outbound link.

Difference Between A Hyperlink and A Link

A hyperlink and a link are not the same thing. A hyperlink is a type of link that is embedded in a hypertext document, as suggested in the word. All that can be seen in a hyperlink is the anchor text, which is the visible, clickable text. With a link, the address of the page it is pointing to can be seen and it is not embedded into the page. Any links in non-hypertext documents are not considered hyperlinks.

History

In 1987, a database program, called HyperCard was released for the Apple Macintosh that allowed hyperlinking between different pages within a document and to other documents. It was likely the first use of the word 'hyperlink'.

In 1990, Windows Help, which was introduced with Microsoft Windows 3.0, had common use of hyperlinks to link different pages in a single help file together. Additionally, it had a different kind of hyperlink that caused a popup help message to appear when clicked.

The Gopher protocol from 1991 was the first standard protocol that allowed hyperlinks from any internet site to any other internet site. After the 1993 release of the Mosaic browser, HTML quickly superseded it which was capable of handling Gopher links as well as HTML links. The benefit of HTML over Gopher, which only supported menu-structured text and hyperlinks, was the ability to combine images, text, and hyperlinks.