Wikipedia:Manual of Style (links)

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This page is part of the Manual of Style, and is considered a guideline for Wikipedia. The consensus of many editors formed the conventions described here, and Wikipedia articles should heed these guidelines. Before making any major changes to these guidelines, please use the discussion page to ensure that your changes reflect consensus.

Shortcut: WP:MOS-L MoS:L

Guidance on style
Manual of Style
Supplementary manuals
Abbreviations Biographies Capital letters Command-line examples Dashes Dates and numbers Headings Legal Links Lists of works Mathematics Music Pronunciation Spelling Text formatting Titles Trademarks Writing about fiction
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Disambiguation pages Arabic transliteration China-related articles Ethiopia-related articles Ireland-related articles Islam-related articles Japan-related articles Korea-related articles Latter Day Saints Medicine-related articles Portugal-related articles
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How to edit a page Guide to layout Captions Categorization Categorization of people Cite sources Explain jargon Footnotes Writing better articles Lead section Lists Music samples Naming conventions Overlinking Picture tutorial Proper names Sections Sister projects Technical terms and definitions Words to avoid

Contents 1 Internal links 1.1 Overlinking and underlinking: what's the best ratio? 1.2 Form 1.3 Context 1.4 Dates and numbers 1.5 Capitalisation 1.6 Quotation 2 External links 2.1 Syntax 2.2 Link titles 2.3 URLs as embedded (numbered) links 2.4 Position in article 2.5 Foreign-language sites 2.6 File type 2.7 File size

Internal links

The use of links to other Wikipedia articles, for example, [[Ant]], is encouraged. Use the links for all words and terms that are relevant to the article.

The purpose of internal links is to allow readers to easily and conveniently follow their curiosity or research to other articles. These links should be included where it is most likely that a reader would want to follow them elsewhere — for example, in article introductions, the beginnings of new sections, table cells, and image captions. Generally, where it is likely that a reader may wish to read about another topic, the reader should not have to hunt for a link elsewhere in the page.

As a general rule, do not put links in the title; however, this may be acceptable with complex titles or verbose leads, such as those concerning multiple concepts.

Overlinking and underlinking: what's the best ratio?

On the other hand, do not make too many links. An article may be considered overlinked if any of the following is true:

• More than 10% of the words are contained in links;
• More than 10% of the links are to articles that don't exist; or
• Low added-value items are linked without reason — such as, 1995, 1980s, and 20th century.
• A link for any single term is excessively repeated in the same article, as in the example of overlinking which follows: "Excessive" is more than once for the same term, in a line or a paragraph, because in this case one or more duplicate links will almost certainly then appear needlessly on the viewer's screen. Remember, the purpose of links is to direct the reader to a new spot at the point(s) where the reader is most likely to take a temporary detour due to needing more information;
• However, note that duplicating an important link distant from a previous occurrence in an article, may well be appropriate (but see the exception about dates, below). Good places for link duplication are often the first time the term occurs in each article subsection. Thus, if an important technical term appears many times in a long article, but is only linked once at the very beginning of the article, it may actually be underlinked. But take care in fixing such problems. If an editor finds themselves "reflexively" linking a term without having a good look around the entire article, it is often time to stop and reconsider.

These guidelines also apply to tables, considered by themselves.

Form

Links that follow the Wikipedia naming conventions are much more likely to lead to existing articles. When there is not yet an article about that subject, good links will make the creation of a correctly named article much easier for later writers.

It is possible to link words that are not exactly the same as the linked article title — for example, [[English language|English]]. However, make sure that it is still clear what the link refers to without having to follow the link.

When forming plurals, do so thus: [[language]]s. This is clearer to read in wiki form than [[language|languages]] — and easier to type. This syntax is also applicable to adjective constructs such as [[Asia]]n and the like. Hyphens and apostrophes must be included in the link to show as part of it for example [[Jane's Fighting Ships|Jane's]] or [[truant|playing-the-hop]]. Keeping possessive apostrophes inside the link, where possible, makes for more readable text and source.

Context

Main article: Wikipedia:Only make links that are relevant to the context

As the World Wide Web Consortium says, "Don't say 'click here'; not everyone will be clicking". Link an existing word or phrase in context.

While editing, use preview to check a link, and follow it by opening the page in another window. If that title doesn't seem to exist, do a quick search to find out whether that is really the case. The article may have a differently worded title, or the subject may be included in a separate section of an existing article.

Links should use the most precise target that arises in the context, even where that is merely a simple redirect to a less specific page title. Don't use a piped link to avoid otherwise legitimate redirect targets that fit well within the scope of the text. This assists in determining when a significant number of references to redirected links warrant more detailed articles. For example, link to "V8 engine" rather than "V8 engine".

Automated processes should not replace or pipe links to redirects. Instead, the link should always be examined in context. (For more information, see Wikipedia:Disambiguation, Wikipedia:Redirect#Don't fix links to redirects that aren't broken, and Wikipedia:Redirects with possibilities.)

Dates and numbers

Main article: Wikipedia:Manual of Style (dates and numbers)

Where a date contains day, month, and year — [[25 March]], [[2004]] — or day and month — [[February 10]] — a link will permit the date preferences of the reader to operate. Day, month, and year must all be linked for the preference to work fully.

Preferences and, in some cases, editorial freedom regarding the linking of dates are discussed in Wikipedia:Manual of Style (dates and numbers)#Dates.

Capitalisation

There is currently no rule prescribing whether one should write "See also Train" or "See also train" (and similar with a bulleted list), but in the case of multiple links, be consistent. Note that linking does not force use of a capital letter, if you don't desire one in the interest of readability.

Quotation

Words in quotations should not be linked for context. The text should remain in the same form and with the same emphasis as it did in the source. This is especially true for linking dates which, if linked, are changed according to readers’ date preferences.

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