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This guide explores how to explain Wiki links, interwiki links, and external link usage.
Wikilinks
A wikilink is a link that is included within the article and links to another Wikipedia article. You'll often see these as blue links in articles. Red links mean that an article doesn't exist and needs to be created.
How do I add a link in my article to another article?
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External links
An external link is a link that goes to another website and relates to the subject focus of the article it is being linked from.
How do I add a link to my website or another website to an article?
External links can be added to relevant articles as needed. Not every website that has ever existed needs to be added, but, important links like the official website for the article subject (i.e. a town's government website, a musicians website) should be added. If you think that the link you're wanting to add is important enough to help readers learn more about the subject, then go for it! Here is how you can do it:
- 1. On the article page, go to the "External links" section of the article. If the article does not have a section called that, you have to add it.
- To add the External links section, simply click the "edit" link at the top of the page. Next, scroll down and just after the reference section (hopefully it exists!) type:
==External links==
and then underneath that you can add your link. Before you do that, it's probably best to save your work. Scroll down to the "Edit summary" section of the page and type "Added External links section," to the summary section. Click "Show preview" to catch a preview of your work, and if it looks correct, click "Save page."
- To add the External links section, simply click the "edit" link at the top of the page. Next, scroll down and just after the reference section (hopefully it exists!) type:
- 2. Once you find the External links section, click the "edit" button for that section (just to the right on the same line as "External links.").
- 3. Add your link by typing: *Wikipedia's official website Instead of using the Wikipedia web address, replace it with the address you want to add. Make sure there is a space, and then replace "Wikipedia's official website," with the name of the website you are adding. Add a "]" after that and then click the "show preview" button towards the bottom.
- 4. If your addition looks correct, great work! Simply add in the edit summary "added an external link," and click save!
Another user accused me of spam? Why and how can I avoid being called that?
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Interwiki links
An interwiki link is generally used to describe linking a Wikipedia article to another sister project, such as linking a word on an article to its definition on Wiktionary.
How do I add a link to another Wikimedia project like Wiktionary?
- Use the prefix markup [[wikt:]], e.g. [[wikt:chain]] will display as wikt:chain. To suppress display of the prefix, use the pipe character "trick" after the destination article name, i.e. [[wikt:chain|]] will display as chain.
- To link to a foreign language definition, use the appropriate additional prefix, e.g. [[wikt:fr:lier]] to give wikt:fr:lier. (Note that use of the pipe trick only suppresses one prefix, in which case a fully piped link can be used, i.e. [[wikt:fr:lier|lier]] to give lier.)
- Further information about linking to other Wikimedia projects is at Help:Interwiki linking.