What is an anchor link? Creating anchor links on WordPress guide
In my post, my beginner’s guide shows you how to link to a section on the same page on WordPress step by step. Anchor links allow your website visitors to jump to another part of your post without having to scroll.
When writing blog posts, it is important to think about user experience. Many visitors to your website are looking for specific information, adding anchor links to your blog posts, helps them find the information they need quickly.
Let’s get started.
- What are anchor links?
- First, create the anchor
- Second, create your clickable link
- How to test anchor links before publishing
- How to create anchor links on WordPress video tutorial
- Conclusion
What are anchor links?
Anchor text links are clickable links within a blog post that jump to a different section of the same page. No need to scroll, click on the link, and jump.
First, create the anchor
First, click on the subheading you want to link to. Once you click on the heading, there is an ‘Advanced’ option on the right.
Open the ‘Advanced’ drop-down. In the drop-down, there is an ‘HTML anchor’ text box.
In this text box, enter one or two words with no spaces.
Now you have an anchor, now it is time to create a clickable link that jumps to this heading.
Second, create your clickable link
On my blog posts, I have a table of contents, I will show you how to make a table of contents with clickable links.
First, create a list block. Click on the plus icon and find ‘List’. If you don’t see the ‘List’ block on the most used, type ‘List’ into the search bar.
On the list block, type the sub-heading text or something similar.
Next, highlight all the text, then click on the ‘Link’ icon.
Once you click on the ‘Link’ icon, you get a text box.
In this text box, type the hashtag symbol ‘#’ followed by the text from the ‘Advanced’ box. It is important to have the ‘#’, this tells WordPress that the link destination is on the same page. If you forget the hashtag, your link won’t work.
You must ensure that you type the exact same text you have in your ‘Advanced’ box, if the text is different, the link won’t work.
Once complete, click on the arrow symbol to the right of the text or press ‘Enter’ to activate your new link. The text turns blue to show that it is a clickable link.
How to test anchor links before publishing
When I first started creating anchor links, I was worried the link wouldn’t work. To test your link works, click on ‘Preview’ on the top right.
Your blog post will open in a new tab, it isn’t live yet because you haven’t published your content. The preview option allows you to view your post as a visitor.
To test your anchor links, click on each one to check they jump to the correct section of your content.
If you find a link does not work, check that you have included the ‘#’ and the text is exactly the same as the text in ‘Advanced’.
Once your test is complete, you are ready to publish.
How to create anchor links on WordPress video tutorial
Conclusion
Visitors to your website will scan your content to find the information they need. To help them do that, I recommend having a table of contents with anchor links at the top of your post. This allows your visitors to jump to the section that will give them the information they want.
Having clickable links creates a better user experience for your visitor. If they enjoy using your site, it will encourage them to spend more time reading your content.
Creating anchor text links may look difficult the first time you create them, but once you do it a couple of times, it gets easier.
Keeping your posts organized into categories and menus is also important. For a step by step guide on assigning post categories and creating menus on WordPress, check out my ‘How to set up menus in WordPress‘ post.
I also have a YouTube channel of tutorials about WordPress, SEO, and the Amazon affiliate program.
Before you return to your WordPress site, I would love it if you could spare one minute to write a comment. Did I help you with my post? Would you like me to go into more detail? Is there anything on WordPress you need help with? I look forward to reading your comments.
