What Is a Hyperlink? Meaning, Types and How to Make One

Hyperlinks are the reason it's called a web: pages tied to other pages by clickable threads. You use them constantly, in search results, emails, documents and chats, usually without thinking about what's underneath.

This guide explains what a hyperlink is, how one works when you click it, the types you'll run into, and exactly how to make a link clickable in Word, Google Docs, Gmail, Outlook, Slack, HTML and Markdown. It also covers the places where links can't be clickable, how to write link text people (and search engines) understand, and how to find broken links.

In this guide

• What is a hyperlink?
• The two parts of a hyperlink
• How a hyperlink works when you click it
• Hyperlink vs link vs URL
• Types of hyperlinks, with examples
• A brief history of the hyperlink
• How to make a link clickable
• How to edit or remove a hyperlink
• Anchor text best practices
• Broken links and how to check them

What Is a Hyperlink?

A hyperlink (usually just called a link) is an element in a digital document that you can click or tap to go somewhere else. That "somewhere" can be another website, another page on the same site, a spot further down the same page, a file, a new email, a phone call or a text message.

Here's one in action: this sentence links to our free URL shortener. The words "free URL shortener" are the visible part. Behind them sits an address, and your browser goes there when you click.

You can usually recognize a hyperlink because:

• Text links are styled differently. Unless a site's design changes it, browsers show links in blue and underlined, and links you've already visited in purple.
• The cursor changes. On a computer, the pointer turns into a hand when you hover over a link.
• The destination appears on hover. Most browsers show the link's address in a corner of the window while you hover, before you click.

Links aren't limited to web pages. Word documents, Google Docs, PDFs, slide decks, emails and chat apps all support them.

The Two Parts of a Hyperlink

Every hyperlink has the same two ingredients: what you see and where it goes. On the web, a link is written with the HTML anchor element, <a>:

1. The anchor (anchor text or link text) is the clickable part readers see: "See our pricing". It can also be an image or a button.
2. The destination is the URL in the href attribute: https://example.com/pricing. It can be a full address, a path on the same site (/pricing) or a section of the current page (#faq).

That's the whole recipe. Everything else is optional. These attributes are the ones you'll meet most often:

Attribute	Example	What it does
target	target="_blank"	Opens the link in a new tab. Modern browsers automatically apply noopener protection to these links.
rel	rel="nofollow", rel="sponsored", rel="ugc"	Tells search engines about the link: untrusted, paid or user-generated.
download	download	Downloads the file instead of opening it. Works for files on the same site.
title	title="Opens a PDF"	Shows a tooltip on hover. It doesn't replace clear anchor text.

For image links, the image's alt text does the job of anchor text, both for screen readers and for Google.

If you want to understand the destination half in depth (schemes, paths, query strings and fragments), our guide to what a URL is breaks one down part by part.

How a Hyperlink Works When You Click It

Clicking a link looks instant, but the browser runs through a few steps:

1. Read the destination. The browser takes the URL from the link's href.
2. Fill in missing parts. A relative address like /pricing is completed using the current page's address, so it becomes https://example.com/pricing.
3. Act on the type of link.
   • A section of the same page (#faq): the browser scrolls to it. Nothing is downloaded.
   • A web page (https://...): the browser finds the server, requests the page, follows any redirects and displays the result. With target="_blank", it does this in a new tab.
   • An email address (mailto:): your default email app opens a new message.
   • A phone number (tel:): your phone offers to call it.
   • A file with download: the browser saves it instead of opening it.
4. Remember it. The page goes into your history, which is why the link now shows in the "visited" color.

Short links add one extra hop: the short URL answers with a redirect to the long one, and the browser follows it automatically. Our guide on how URL redirects work shows what happens during that hop.

Hyperlink vs Link vs URL

People use these words interchangeably, but they're not quite the same thing.

Term	What it means	Example
Hyperlink	The clickable element that connects one place to another	The words "See our pricing" that open the pricing page
Link	The everyday word for a hyperlink. Also used loosely for a URL, as in "send me the link"	Same as above
URL	The address a hyperlink points to	https://example.com/pricing
Anchor text	The visible, clickable part of a hyperlink	"See our pricing"

The simple way to remember it: a URL is an address, a hyperlink is a clickable way to get there. A URL printed on a poster is not a hyperlink, because nobody can click paper. A hyperlink, on the other hand, always has a URL behind it.

Types of Hyperlinks, with Examples

Hyperlinks can be grouped by what you click (text, image, button) and by where they go (same site, another site, a section, an app). Here are the types you'll see most, with the HTML for each:

Type	What it does	HTML example
Text link	Words that link somewhere	<a href="/pricing">See pricing</a>
Image link	Makes an image clickable. Its alt text acts as the anchor text.	<a href="/"><img src="logo.png" alt="Home"></a>
Button link	A link styled to look like a button	<a href="/signup" class="button">Start free</a>
Internal link	Goes to another page on the same website	<a href="/blog/what-is-a-url">What is a URL?</a>
External link	Goes to a page on a different website	<a href="https://developer.mozilla.org/">MDN Web Docs</a>
Anchor (jump) link	Jumps to a section of the same page	<a href="#faq">Jump to the FAQ</a>
Email link	Opens a new email to an address	<a href="mailto:hello@example.com">Email us</a>
Phone link	Starts a call on a phone	<a href="tel:+15555550123">Call us</a>
SMS link	Opens a new text message	<a href="sms:+15555550123">Text us</a>
Download link	Downloads a file instead of opening it	<a href="/files/guide.pdf" download>Download the guide</a>
Text fragment link	Opens a page and highlights a specific passage	<a href="https://example.com/guide#:~:text=step%203">See step 3</a>

A few of these deserve a closer look.

Internal vs external links

Internal links connect pages on your own site. They help visitors find related content and help search engines discover and understand your pages. External links point to other sites, which is how you cite sources and give readers somewhere useful to go next. Both are normal and healthy. For paid or user-submitted external links, add rel="sponsored" or rel="ugc" so search engines know what they are.

Anchor (jump) links

A jump link points to an element on the same page by its id. Give a heading an id, then link to it with #:

<h2 id="pricing-faq">Pricing FAQ</h2>
...
<a href="#pricing-faq">Jump to the pricing FAQ</a>

The "In this guide" list at the top of this article is made of jump links. You can also combine a page and a section: https://example.com/help#pricing-faq opens the help page and scrolls straight to that heading.

Email, phone and app links

mailto:, tel: and sms: links open apps instead of web pages, which makes them handy on contact pages and in email signatures. You can pre-fill details, such as a subject line: mailto:hello@example.com?subject=Quote%20request. The mailto link generator and tel and SMS link generator build these for you, and the WhatsApp link generator does the same for WhatsApp chats.

Button links vs buttons

A link goes somewhere, a button does something (submits a form, opens a menu). If clicking it loads a new page, use an <a href> styled as a button. Search engines and assistive technology treat real links as links, so "a button that navigates" should still be an <a>.

A Brief History of the Hyperlink

The hyperlink is older than the web by decades.

When	Milestone
1945	Vannevar Bush's essay "As We May Think" describes the memex, an imagined desk machine that could link any two pages into a "trail" of related information.
1965	Ted Nelson coins the terms "hypertext" and "hypermedia". He is also credited with coining "link" in 1965 (or possibly 1964) at the start of Project Xanadu.
1966 to 1968	Douglas Engelbart's team builds working hyperlinks into its NLS system, first within a document and then between documents.
December 1968	Engelbart shows hypertext to the public in the presentation now known as "The Mother of All Demos".
August 1987	Apple releases HyperCard for the Macintosh, bringing linked cards to ordinary computer users.
1989	Tim Berners-Lee proposes the World Wide Web at CERN, where any document can link to any other document on the internet by its URL.

That last step is what changed everything. Most earlier hypertext systems linked documents inside a single system. The web let a link point to any page on any server in the world, and the humble <a href> became its most important piece. You can read more in Wikipedia's hyperlink and hypertext articles.

How to Make a Link Clickable

The universal trick: select the text, press Ctrl + K (Cmd + K on a Mac), paste the URL and confirm. It works in most editors that support rich text. Here's the cheat sheet, followed by step-by-step instructions.

Where	Shortcut	Menu route
Microsoft Word	Ctrl + K / Cmd + K	Insert > Link, or right-click > Link
Google Docs	Ctrl + K / Cmd + K	Insert > Link
Gmail	Ctrl + K / Cmd + K	Insert link icon in the formatting bar
Outlook	Ctrl + K / Cmd + K	Insert > Link
Slack	Ctrl + Shift + U / Cmd + Shift + U	Link icon in the message formatting bar
HTML	Not applicable	<a href="URL">text</a>
Markdown	Not applicable	[text](URL)

How to create a hyperlink in Microsoft Word

1. Select the text or picture you want to turn into a link.
2. Press Ctrl + K (Cmd + K on a Mac), or go to Insert > Link, or right-click and choose Link.
3. Paste the web address and confirm.

Word also creates links automatically: type a full web address and press Space or Enter, and it becomes a link. To open a link inside Word, hold Ctrl and click it. That's the default setting (File > Options > Advanced > Use CTRL + Click to follow hyperlink), so plain clicks don't open links while you're editing.

How to create a hyperlink in Google Docs

1. Highlight the text you want to link.
2. Click Insert > Link, or press Ctrl + K (Cmd + K on a Mac).
3. Paste the URL (or search for a document) and click Apply.

How to add a hyperlink in Gmail

1. In a new message, select the words you want to link.
2. Click the Insert link icon in the formatting bar at the bottom of the compose window, or press Ctrl + K (Cmd + K on a Mac).
3. Paste the web address and confirm.

How to add a hyperlink in Outlook

1. Select the text in your message.
2. Press Ctrl + K (the same in new Outlook, classic Outlook and Outlook on the web; Cmd + K in Outlook for Mac), or go to Insert > Link.
3. Paste the address and confirm.

How to add a link in Slack

Select the text in the message box and press Ctrl + Shift + U (Cmd + Shift + U on a Mac), or click the link icon in the formatting bar, then paste the URL.

How to make a hyperlink in HTML

Wrap the anchor text in an <a> element and put the destination in href:

<a href="https://example.com/pricing">See our pricing</a>

<!-- Open in a new tab -->
<a href="https://example.com/pricing" target="_blank">See our pricing</a>

<!-- A paid link, labeled for search engines -->
<a href="https://partner.example.com" rel="sponsored">Our partner's store</a>

Always use a real <a> with an href. Google's documentation is explicit that it can only crawl links written that way, so a <span> or a JavaScript click handler without an href isn't a link to a search engine.

How to make a link in Markdown

Markdown, used on GitHub, in many documentation sites and in plenty of note-taking apps, puts the anchor text in square brackets and the URL in parentheses:

[See our pricing](https://example.com/pricing)
<https://example.com/pricing>

The second line shows the URL itself as a clickable link.

In SMS, WhatsApp and other plain-text apps

Plain-text apps can't hide a URL behind anchor text. Paste the full URL, including https://, with a space on both sides, and the app will usually turn it into a tappable link on its own. Because the full address is on display, a short link keeps the message tidy.

Where links can't be clickable

Some places don't allow hyperlinks at all, however you format them:

• Instagram post captions and comments. For most accounts, URLs there stay as plain text (clickable post links are a paid Meta One feature). Use the links on your profile or a link sticker in Stories instead. See how to add a link to an Instagram post for every option, plus our guides to adding a link to an Instagram story and link in bio.
• Print. Paper can't hold a hyperlink, so pair a short URL people can type with a scannable code from the QR code generator.
• Images and screenshots. A URL inside a picture is just pixels. Put the link in the text around it.

How to Edit or Remove a Hyperlink

Where	Edit a link	Remove a link (keep the text)
Word and Outlook	Right-click > Edit Hyperlink	Right-click > Remove Hyperlink
Google Docs	Click the link, then Change	Click the link, then Remove
Gmail	Click the link in your draft, then Change	Click the link, then Remove
HTML	Change the href value	Delete the <a> and </a> tags
Markdown	Change the URL in the parentheses	Delete the brackets and the parentheses

Two Microsoft Office tricks are worth knowing:

• Remove every link at once. In Word or Outlook, press Ctrl + A to select everything, then Ctrl + Shift + F9.
• Stop Word from auto-linking URLs. Go to File > Options > Proofing > AutoCorrect Options, open the AutoFormat As You Type tab and clear Internet and network paths with hyperlinks.

Anchor Text Best Practices

Anchor text matters for two audiences. People using screen readers can pull up a list of every link on a page and jump between them, so each link has to make sense on its own. The W3C's accessibility guidelines make this a Level A requirement (WCAG 2.4.4, Link Purpose). Search engines read anchor text to understand what the linked page is about. Google's link best practices ask for anchor text that is descriptive, reasonably concise and relevant to both pages.

Weak anchor text	Better anchor text
Click here	Download the 2026 price list (PDF)
Read more	Read our guide to UTM parameters
this link	Compare the Pro and Business plans
https://example.com/p?id=8a3f9d1c	Spring collection

The rules that follow from that:

1. Describe the destination. A reader should be able to predict what opens.
2. Keep it short. A few words usually does it. Linking a whole paragraph helps nobody.
3. Make it work out of context. "Click here" read aloud in a list of links means nothing.
4. Mention surprises. If the link downloads a file, opens a new tab or leaves for another site in an unexpected way, say so in the text.
5. Give image links alt text that describes the destination, since it acts as the anchor text.
6. Make links look like links. Underlines or another clear visual cue work better than color alone, which some readers can't distinguish.
7. Label paid and user links. Use rel="sponsored" for paid links, rel="ugc" for user-generated links and rel="nofollow" for links you don't want to vouch for.

Broken Links and How to Check Them

A broken link is a hyperlink whose destination no longer works. It happens when a page is deleted or moved without a redirect, when a domain expires, or when a URL was mistyped in the first place. Over time, more and more old links break, a problem known as link rot.

When you check a link, the server's status code tells you what's going on:

Status code	Meaning	What to do
200 OK	The page loads normally	Nothing
301 or 302	The link redirects to another URL	Fine, but point the link straight at the final URL when you can
404 Not Found	The page doesn't exist	Update the link or remove it
410 Gone	The page was removed on purpose	Remove or replace the link
5xx	The server had an error	Check again later. If it persists, replace the link

How to find broken links without clicking every one:

• A single link: paste it into the redirect checker to see every hop, status code and the final destination.
• A whole page: pull out every link with the link extractor, then run the list through the bulk URL checker to flag 404s, redirects and slow pages in one go.
• A short link: see where it leads with the URL expander before you share or click it.

When you move a page on your own site, add a permanent redirect from the old URL to the new one so existing links keep working. Our 301 vs 302 redirects guide explains which redirect to use.

Key Takeaways

• A hyperlink is a clickable element that takes you to another location. It has two parts: the anchor you see and the destination URL.
• A URL is the address, the hyperlink is the clickable path to it.
• Types include text, image, button, internal, external, jump, email, phone, SMS and download links.
• To make a link clickable, select the text, press Ctrl + K or Cmd + K and paste the URL. In HTML use <a href>, in Markdown use [text](URL).
• Write descriptive anchor text. It helps screen reader users and search engines alike.
• Check your links now and then, because destinations move and links rot.

Ready to build one? The hyperlink generator turns any text and URL into a clickable link you can paste anywhere, and the URL shortener makes long addresses easy to share.