Four tips for using hyperlinks in your communications
Before we get into my four top tips for using hyperlinks on your website or in your marketing email, let’s answer a few questions!
What is a hyperlink?
A hyperlink is text, a button, or an image that is linked to a URL for your website visitors or marketing email readers to click on in order to take some action. This URL can be for another page or section on your website or for an external site.
Hyperlinks are everywhere. You probably don’t even realize how many times a hyperlink is used on a website, in documents, or in emails, because they have become such a natural part of the way we communicate with each other online.
Why are hyperlinks important?
A hyperlink is a clean and easy way to include a call to action in your materials. Compare these two ways of sharing my website:
Check out my website! https://www.meghanzichelli.com/
Or
As you can see, the second option is much cleaner, especially if you are sharing more than one link throughout your page or email. Most readers and viewers will recognize a hyperlink in text by the underline or the change in font color. If you want to make your call to action even more clear, you can include an adverb and then link to that word. Here are a few examples of what I mean:
Check out my website today!
Check out my website here!
Check out my website now!
What should you hyperlink?
Any text, image, icon, button, or logo related to a call to action. I will get more into this below, but it is also important to link images that are not directly related to a call to action, but that your visitor or reader may click on regardless. This way, they aren’t disappointed when they hit a dead end.
Is there such a thing as too many hyperlinks?
Yes and no. When it comes to text, you don’t want to include too many hyperlinks to different URLs throughout your materials because, unlike images, these are more visibly obvious and can be distracting. However, you can get away with this if all of your hyperlinks are directed to your primary call to action. I get into limiting the number of URLs in more detail below.
Hyperlinks seem like such a small thing but they are so important in providing an optimal experience for your audience! I always double- and triple-check that all my links are set up properly before I hit send on a marketing email or hit publish on a website.
Four hyperlink tips to keep in mind before you hit send or publish
Link all images
Email marketing
I can’t tell you how many times I open up an e-newsletter or marketing email, I click on the logo or the header image to take me to the company website or related blog post, and it either doesn’t do anything or it just opens up the image in a new tab. This is not helpful to anyone! You should make it extremely easy for your newsletter reader to take action, and that’s typically by clicking a link to a webpage, whether your website, a donation page, your blog, a registration link - you get the point. You don’t want them looking throughout your email for the link or, gasp!, resorting to Google to search for it themselves (spoiler - they probably won’t go search for it and instead they will just delete your email)!
In any email marketing platform you should be able to hyperlink all images including your banner, logo, and icons. Take advantage of this and link them all to your call to action. When in doubt, link an image to your website’s home page.
Website
The same reasons can apply to your website. Imagine in one section you have a photo, some copy, and a button with your call to action. Likely the website visitor will click the button to take action, but if they click the image, wouldn’t it be nice if they were directed to the link you want them to visit? Again, this is an available setting in the backend of your website, so you should use it.
Set a link to open in a new tab
On your website, you’ll have the option for a link to open in a new tab when a user clicks on it. If the link is going to take the user away from your website (ie to another website), always always always set it to open in a new tab. Otherwise, that link will open in the same tab, replacing your website in their browser.
If the link is to another page or section on your site, it’s fine to have it open in the same tab since the visitor will remain on your site. If you prefer, you can also set these to open in a new tab, but it’s not necessary.
Remember - the goal is to keep the user on your website so they can take action!
Choose the right hyperlink color
In Squarespace and most marketing email platforms, you can customize the color of linked text. Sometimes you may select a color without seeing it in action and then forget to make sure it shows up on your background and doesn’t clash with your font color. Make sure the hyperlinked text is readable, or people may miss it!
Back in the early days of the internet, a hyperlink text color almost always defaulted to blue. Since we can now customize our color, as mentioned above, default to choosing a color from your brand palette instead so that your materials remain consistent.
Minimize the number of URLs
Your goal is to direct email readers and website viewers to take action. To be successful in this, you want to limit the possible actions they can take. While it might seem useful to link relevant resources to different words throughout your text, that only serves as a distraction. And while it may seem useful to present users with multiple options so they can choose what’s best for them, that will likely result in them not choosing anything at all. On a website page, stick to 1-3 actions and in an email, stick to 1 per topic or section.
One thing to keep in mind is that you can direct people to the same URL throughout your page but use varying calls to action. For example, if your goal is to get a website visitor to donate, you can use “Donate today” in one place, “Give now” in another, and “Show your support” in yet another, all linking to the same donation form.
Before you hit send or publish, make sure to double check all of these steps! These are a few of the tips I might include in my marketing audit service or marketing strategy service, depending on your needs and goals.