Hyperlink or often just “link” is the name for a reference within a hypertext document to another document. The document that is “linked” to does not necessarily have to be a website, it can also be a link to a media file, such as an image or video. In principle, any document type can be linked, provided that it has a unique address.
On the Internet, links are usually made to websites, media content or .pdf documents. Linking between different documents is one of the basic functions of the Internet. As a result, content no longer has to be received linearly, but can be linked to one another by references. In the HTML code, a link looks like this:
<a href=” http://www.examplewebsite.de “> Example text </a>
The code thus contains the hyperlink target and the link text. This is the text that will ultimately become clickable. Clicking on “Example Text” would lead to the website www.examplewebsite.de with the code above.
Internal Links
There are different types of links, the differences of which are particularly relevant for search engine optimization. For example, a distinction is made between internal links and external links or backlinks. Internal links are references to other content within the page.
For a news website, for example, that would be links between different articles. Internal links can be structured differently. Typical link structures are explained below.
Link Structures
Links have a linear structure when one moves from one web content to the next without these web contents being linked to one another via navigation or the like.
Link lists or PDF documents typically have a linear structure. With the network structure, the user can go from any linked page to any other linked page – a classic structure for menus and online shops. If, for example, the user clicks on the “Furniture” category in a shop, he can still go to any other category immediately, since all other categories remain visible even when the “Furniture” category is called up.
The tree structure has the property that the user can click deeper into the page and then open further links. The tree structure can also be related to the categories of online shops: For example, categories often still have subcategories that are only visible when the main category has been selected.
On the other hand, wikis traditionally have a star structure. This is characterized by the fact that sub-pages are linked to one another without having a common superordinate category (because then it would be a tree structure).
External Links
The backlinks or external links, however, are links that refer to your own website from other websites. Having a proper link building strategy is one of the basic tasks of search engine optimization.
In addition, links from social networks are referred to as social signals , links from particularly trustworthy sites (for example, from a reputable news site) as trust links, links that are tagged with “nofollow” as nofollow links, and deep links are links to deeper in the Page structure content. These link types can also overlap.
In principle, every link can be provided with a nofollow tag, which ensures that the search engine’s crawler does not follow the link.
The Permalink
A permalink is the counterpart to the dynamic link. A permalink exists when a web content has a unique URL that is permanently preserved. Hence the name: Permalink is the common name for a “permanent link”. Permanent links ensure that links do not become “dead” links.
References with dead links do not work. Nowadays most content management systems work with permalinks, because it makes sense in every respect that hyperlinks work permanently. Permalinks are particularly useful for search engine optimization.
The Relevance Of Hyperlinks For Search Engine Optimization
Hyperlinks are crucial for search engine optimization. The Google search is based on the page rank of Google founders Larry Page. This made the number of links the decisive criterion when evaluating a website by the search engine.
The criteria have changed a lot since Google was founded – today the number of links counts rather than the quality of links – nonetheless, building backlinks is still one of the fundamental tasks of search engine optimizers.
Also Read: What Do You Mean By JQUERY
