3c. Shift focus from the links or the linked-to documents to the subject.
- Write as if you were not using links. Say something interesting, and, almost incidentally, include some hot text.
Before
We have discovered a wonderful link to some horrible material about the Japanese occupation of Korea, which led to a strict suppression of free speech, according to the author of this site, a Willard Price. He says that the Japanese burned Korean books, banned, the Korean language in schools, arrested people without warrants, put people in prison without trial, and committed outright massacres in 1919 and 1942.
After
The Japanese occupation of Korea led to strict suppression of free speech, according to Willard Price—burning Korean books, banning of the Korean language in schools, arrest without warrant, prison without trial, and, in 1919 and 1942, outright massacres.
- Do not point out that the link is a link. Let the formatting reveal its clickability.
Other ways to make links hot
3a. Make clear what the user will get from the link.
3b. Within a sentence, make the link the emphatic element.
3d. Provide depth and breadth through plentiful links to related information within your site.
3e. Establish credibility by offering outbound links.
3f. Make meta information public.
3g. Write URLs that humans can read.
3i. Tell people about a media object before they download.
3j. Announce the new with special links.
3k. Write meta-tags to have your pages found.
Resources on writing links
