Hyperlinks
A hyperlink is what we use to move around the web from page to page. A hyperlink is often underlined, though not always. Hyperlinks can be text, images, buttons, or moving images. In fact, almost anything on a web page can be a hyperlink to another page or even a completely different website altogether.
You should be able to spot when something is a hyperlink. When you move your mouse cursor over it, the pointer should change to a hand, showing that it links to something else.
There are several types of hyperlink
Internal hyperlinks
Internal hyperlinks are links that keep you within the website you are visiting, but take you to a different page.
- Videos on YouTube normally link to another page completely, but are still internal to the YouTube website.
- Facebook posts normally link you to another friend's page. These are still within the Facebook domain and are internal to that website.
External hyperlinks
External hyperlinks are links that take you to another website.
- Advertising links normally ask you to click on them and they take you to their own website.
- Links on tweets may take you away from your Twitter feed to an external website.
Relative hyperlinks
Relative links in web pages link to a location in the same directory.
- They are flexible and only contain the path to the page or media being linked to on the same server.
- Developers use relative links in case they move locations of pages, meaning the links will work.
- Relative links work out the pathway to a file by themselves and are usually shorter.
- For example, take the file /picture1.jpg. In this case the software would automatically put the full address location at the beginning.
Absolute hyperlinks
Absolute links are completely fixed. They do not change and point directly to a specific location to access. They include all information needed for the browser to locate the file, including the server address, path and filename.
- http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/ would always link to this location.