Creating Links in Blog Posts Using WordPress

WordPress is a popular site used for personal websites and blogs. I have used it for the first time this summer for a college course in order to publish course work and maintain a blog about running.

When writing a post in WordPress, you should take advantage of the many features the site offers. One of these features is linking to other sites. I had trouble creating links that worked and flowed with my text when I first started using WordPress. This post will give you a step-by-step tutorial on how to make these links in posts with 6 short steps.

Step 1: Write your post. While writing, think about the pages you’d like to link to. Open these pages in new tabs or windows. Whether you’re linking to a story you reference within your post (like another blog) or a helpful definition of a term, you can easily link to these pages.

*Instructions for starting a new post: When signed into your account, visit your site. At the top of the page there should be a toolbar with the option for “+New.” When you hover over the button, click “Post.” This will allow you to begin writing a new post for your site.

This is the toolbar that should appear on your page. Hover over “+New” and click “Post.”

This is what a typical WordPress post looks like. It is also the sample post I will use throughout the tutorial.

This is the page I will link to, opened in a separate tab.

Step 2: Highlight the words in your post that you want the reader to be able to click on. Some people use words like “click here” or “follow this link” but I find that posts look better when the link is directly embedded in your writing.

The goal is to have “Top Ten Ice Cream Flavors” be the link to the other site.

Step 3: Go to the page you want to make a link to. Copy the URL of this page.

Step 4: Go back to your WordPress post. In the toolbar located above your text within WordPress, click the icon with the chain image on it. A box should appear that says “paste URL here.” Paste the URL of the page in the box and hit the arrow icon within the same box.

My cursor is over the chain icon I referenced above. Click this.

This box appears and you paste your link and “apply.”

Step 5: Repeat steps 2–4 for any other links you want to add. Save your work as a draft or publish it if you’re ready.

Step 6: Make sure the link works. Click the “view page” link above your text box. This should bring you to the post you created. If you’re link appears in a different color than the text, the link should work. Click on it. Did the page you wanted open? If yes, good job! If not, read the possible errors that could have occurred below and repeat steps 2–4 to try again.

*There are many possible reasons the link might not work the first time — it still happens to me once in a while. You may have forgotten to hit the arrow icon at the end, added a character to the URL accidentally, etc. I recommend starting from scratch by removing the link (this option appears when you click your link in editing mode) and pasting the link again directly from the page to make sure it’s correct before following step 6.

I chose to publish my post. Notice how the words I used to link changed color. This means the link is active. Below the words “edit post” you can hit “view post” (shown in blue).

The published post shows the link is active with the blue text.

Hopefully you now have a good understanding of how to create links within a WordPress post. This same process can be used to link within pages as well. Good luck and happy posting!