Link

You can add a link to:  

• Body text
• A table
• A feature box  

On landing pages or overview pages, you can add links to cards as well.

Your links should be formatted each on their own line, without a bullet point.

Ideally, they should be placed underneath the text content that is related to them, or where the link adds a meaningful contribution to the main body content.

They should never be added in line with the body text, because this makes them harder to find, and if someone is using a screen reader, the text will become confusing by reading out the body text, link text, and link caption all together.

Wherever possible, you should avoid having a list of links at the bottom of your webpage, where users are less likely to pay attention to them.

You can use buttons to make your link stand out within a bold coloured shape on the page.  

You can also use button iconography to indicate where the link will take the user, or what kind of call-to-action it is. 

To find out more about how you can style your links with buttons, you can go to our component page on buttons.

You should never use the link text 'click here'. This does not tell users with screen reading technologies where the link will take them. 

Good link text should describe the destination to the user, and make sense without the context of the rest of the copy on that web page. 

You could include the title of the link destination, and state whether it links to an external site, a downloadable item, or requires a login, for example. 

In the link caption, you can add extra information that might be useful to users, for example when the link opens in a new tab or requires a login.

Visit our 'Accessible navigation' page to learn more about writing good link text and how links can contribute to accessible navigation on your website.