How to use hyperlinks
- Hayley Stockall (Unlicensed)
- Jess Pietsch (Unlicensed)
- Jo Tayler
Learn how to add a hyperlink that goes to another webpage or website, or an email address or phone number, in the Single Digital Presence (SDP) content management system (CMS). Understand the difference between internal and external hyperlinks.
On this page
When to use hyperlinks
Follow the Australian Government Style Manual’s guidance on using hyperlinks.
Avoid using URLs as link text (for example, www.accessibilityoz.com) because it’s:
not descriptive enough for users
hard for users to identify breaks between words
hard for screen reader users to understand (they will hear the URL letter-by-letter rather than word-by-word).
Visit Accessibility Oz for more information.
How to create a hyperlink
In the Basic text component, highlight the words that will be hyperlinked.
Avoid vague link text, like ‘Click here’ or 'Read more’ - it’s not accessible and doesn’t accurately describe where you’re taking the user.
Click the Link icon on the toolbar or use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + K.
Follow the instructions below to add either an internal link, external link, email address link or phone number link.
For most hyperlinks, leave the:
Title field and the Advanced fields blank
Open in new window option as unselected.
The Title field populates the title attribute of the hyperlink, usually shown as tooltip text when hovering over the hyperlink. This can be an accessibility problem if the text included here is different to the link text. It’s generally better to focus on making the link text as descriptive and helpful as possible and leave the Title field blank.
It is considered best practice to have hyperlinks open in the same window, but the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines provides 3 situations for when it may be a good idea to select the option to open in a new window.
How to create an internal hyperlink
After you’ve selected the text and clicked the chain icon, in the Link URL field, start typing the title of the page being linked to. While typing, page titles will start to appear in a dropdown menu.
There will be extra details to help find the right content, such as the content type (e.g. Landing page), whether the page is published or unpublished, and the site or site-section it’s tagged to.
Select the relevant page title. The page will then display as its unique node number.
Click the (tick icon) to save.
How to create an external hyperlink
In the Link URL field, paste or type in the full website address. This must include the “https://www.” string at the start of the URL, otherwise the hyperlink will not work.
For example, to link to Google: ‘https://www.google.com/’.
Leave the Title field and the Advanced fields blank and Open in new window option unselected.
Click the (tick icon) to save.
How to link an email address
In the Link URL field, add the email address.
Click the dropdown menu option that starts with Email.
Click the (tick icon) to save.
The prefix ‘mailto:’ should be automatically added to the hyperlink. Check this by clicking anywhere in the hyperlink to see a preview of the link.
How to link a phone number to make calls or send an SMS
Phone call option
In the Link URL field, add the phone number without any spaces.
Click the dropdown menu option that starts with Phone number.
Click the (tick icon) to save.
The prefix tel: should be automatically added to the hyperlink. This will let a website user make a phone call from their device.
SMS option (currently only available on content.vic.gov.au)
In the Link URL field, add the prefix sms: and phone number without any spaces.
Do not click the dropdown menu option as this will add the phone call prefix tel: and make the link unusable.
Click the (tick icon) to save.
How to edit a hyperlink
Put the cursor anywhere in the existing hyperlink.
Click the (Edit link or pencil icon) or use the keyboard shortcut CTRL + K to open the pop-up window.
Follow the steps above for adding any type of hyperlink.
How to remove a hyperlink
Put the cursor anywhere in the existing hyperlink.
Click the Unlink icon.
How to add anchor links
An anchor link goes to a particular place on a webpage. You can add anchor links to the main headings on your webpage (displayed as a table of contents) or create an anchor link to a specific heading on another webpage. Find out how to add a table of contents and anchor links.