Anchor Links
Help Your Visitors Navigate Longer Webpages

When you want to link your visitors to another point on the same webpage, you use what are called anchor tags or anchor links (aka Quick Jump Links). These types of HTML text links are most useful in long documents with multiple sections because they help your visitors navigate quickly to exactly what they are looking for.

There are 2 pieces of HTML text link code you need to put into your HTML document. The first creates the url links and the second marks the anchor location. Let's look at each piece separately.

Create the URL Hyperlink

The page is very long so I wanted to provide anchor links to help my visitors better navigate the page.

Here is the HTML text link code I used to create the first anchor link:

 <a href="#Invitations">Invitations</a> 

The #Invitations part of the code is the anchor location that I want to take them to. It happens to be the beginning of the Invitations section of my page (see image below). Whatever anchor text you use here is not visible in the link itself.

The second part of the HTML text link code (again, the word Invitations) is the anchor text that is displayed (underlined, blue text). I could have used any text for my link, like "Learn About Invitations Here."

Mark The Anchor Location

Now we need to create the anchor point which is where this link will take them when they click on it. We again need to use the <a> tag but instead of using the href= argument we are going to use the name= argument.

This image shows where in my webpage I want them to land when they click on the Invitations Quick Jump Link.

Here is the HTML code to define the anchor location:

 <a name="Invitations">Invitations</a> 

The wording in the first part of the anchor location code (<a name="Invitations">) must be identical to the wording in the first part of the anchor link code (<a href="#Invitations">). If it is different, your anchor link will not work.

Hyperlink to a Specific Point on a Different Webpage

Now let's say you want to link your visitors to another webpage but rather than send them to the top of the page, you want them to land in a specific location on the page.

The process is the same as defined above BUT when creating your anchor link, you have to include the filename of the page that you want your visitors to go to like this:

<a href="http://www.theme-party-queen.com/wine-tasting-party.html#Invitations">Invitations</a>

This works whether you are linking to a different page within your site or you are linking to a completely different website or blog.

Other Free Website Tutorials

Create Affiliate Links To Merchant Sites

A very popular way to monetize a website or blog is to become an affiliate for a merchant or series of merchants. There are several different types of affiliate programs, the most common being pay per sale programs.

With this type of affiliate program, a webmaster, or affiliate, presells a visitor on a merchant product persuading them to click on an affiliate link that they have embedded somewhere on their site or blog. As sales occur, commissions are earned.

Click here to learn how to create affiliate links to merchant sites. Also learn how to cloak affiliate links.

And click here to learn more about affiliate marketing in general and to gain access to Free Affiliate Videos.

Create Image Links

Rather than create simple anchor tags, you may want to create image links. Any time an image is used on a webpage, it draws your visitor's attention and adds interest to your page.

Visit our How To Create Image Links webpage to learn more.