Purpose
LinkIt is a tool in the WYSIWYG bar that simplifies creating internal links within your website content. It provides an autofill box that pulls up a list of the targeted internal page and this helps avoid broken links, absolute or incorrect URLs. Use LinkIt whenever you need to link to another page on your website within your content that doesn't require any special attention to be drawn to it.
Use descriptive links
Because websites are responsive, content changes based on the size of the screen used. Avoid using directional language such as above, below, left, or right.
- Non-directional language (use): Select from the following options
- Directional language (avoid): Select from the options below
Never use the words “click here” or “learn more.” Instead, use descriptive links. Descriptive links help people understand the context of the link and click before they take action. Describe links that highlight the subject, not the action.
- Descriptive links (use): Contact our agency for more information about local services.
- Click here links (avoid): Click here to contact our agency for information about our services.
Learn more about how to write accessible content within are "Writing for All People" Article
As you create promos, automatic lists, and work with page content, you will most likely need to link to another page on your website.
This linking function is handled using the "LinkIt" tool, which is an autofill mechanism.
How to Link to Internal Pages
Creating Internal Page Links
To link to internal pages on your site click the link icon then within the "Link URL" field enter the title of the page, do not add the "https://" url because this will cause an absolute link and this is only used for linking to external sites.
You know that you are properly creating an internal link when you see the pop up window appear and under the grey "Content" bar the result will show the page title and you can select it.
- Note: Micro Content are not able to be linked to.
Creating External Links
For an external link, for example to "directory.iowa.gov", simply select the text you want to link
Use the chain link icon (which is also referred as our linkit tool)
and paste the link to that you want your audience to be directed too. This can be an external link to a google doc, external website, etc.
- Lastly to apply your link select the green check mark and your hyper link is now created!
Your link will now automatically have an indicator icon that displays as an internal or external link.
Create Phone Number Links
You can add the number of your location turn it into a link that mobile users can select and initiate a call. A simple method to do this is to select edit within the relevant page and then highlight the number and use the linkit tool and add the text "tel:" and then your locations number.
Example of linking a phone number:
Linking to Files in the Media Library
First make sure you have the document or file uploaded within your media library because you will need to have the media item added into your media library in order for it to be found and linked by the site.
The media library is also where you can find the name of the media item so that you can link to it using the linkit tool.
When you have the name of the media item you can then go and select the text you want to have create the internal document link to and then within the "Link URL" field you will then simply enter the name of the media item and it will pop up for you to select underneath the grey "Media" results.
To avoid broken links and absolute linking as well as broken links it is important that you use the name of the media item for linking to anything that is internally within the site and not the "https://"
Note: You can not link to images in the media library, these have to be embedded directly in the page.
How to locate broken links
You can easily identify broken links on your site through the weekly reports sent to agencies by Acquia Optimize (formerly known as Monsido).
Within this report you will that the Quality Assurance section will show the number of broken links and potential misspellings on your site:
Acquia Optimize can also show you each page that the broken link appears on, you will first need to make sure you are logged into Acquia Optimize and then select the "Quality Assurance" button:
From there you will then select the "Unique broken links" section to pull up the list of the broken links.
Within this list you will be able to see each page that has the broken link by selecting the page number which will cause a pop up window to appear that has a list of all of the pages with that broken link:
Next to have Acquia Optimize to show you where the broken link is at within your page you can select the magnifying glass icon within the right corner of the pop up window.
If you have Acquia Optimize web browser extension added it will appear on the right side of the screen after you click on the magnifying glass.
Now if the web browser doesn't automatically highlight the broken link on the page after you've clicked on the magnifying glass you can still easily locate it by clicking on the magnifying glass within the web browser pop up window and it should then highlight where the broken link is on the page.
How to fix a broken link
Once you have the broken link located on the page you can now fix the broken link by selecting the edit button that is above the title of your page.
Within the page edit section you can now click the broken link and then to fix it you can select the the pencil icon which will appear when you click the link text:
After you now have the link fixed make sure to save the page and then within the Acquia Optimize chrome extension browser window you can mark the broken link as fixed by selecting the check mark:
Or you can also mark the broken link as fixed within the Acquia Optimize page by selecting the "Open page details" button next to the magnifying glass
From the new window that pops up you will select the action button and then you can select the "set to fixed" to also mark the broken link as fixed so that it removes it from your report and thus improving your Quality Assurance score!
