Help:Introduction to the Manual of Style/4

The MoS
A vast resource

Article sections
Making articles readable

Images and refs
Enriching the text

Linking
Tying the encyclopedia together

Consistency
Final little things to think about

Summary
Review of what you've learned

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Links

Linking with hyperlinks is an important feature of Wikipedia. Internal links (or "wikilinks") bind the project together into an interconnected whole. Links provide instant pathways to locations within the project that are likely to increase our readers' understanding of the topic at hand. You learned how to add them during the Editing section of this tutorial.

To determine how many internal links to include in an article, ask yourself, "Would a reader of this subject be interested in that other article? Does it help explain a concept that is only briefly described in this article, or that may be unfamiliar to a reader?". Typically, the first instance (but not subsequent instances) of an important word should be linked to the relevant article on that topic. Take care not to include too many links, which detracts from readability.

External links (to websites other than Wikipedia) can be added in the "External links" section, along with a short description. These should be included only if they are highly relevant or provide more detail than the article has space for. Websites used as references to support the article's content should instead be put in the "References" section.

See also

• Introduction to linking (Wiki markup)
• Introduction to linking (VisualEditor)
• Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Linking (more detailed guidance)

Try it! Take a quiz to build your linking skills

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