Adding links to your WordPress website is very easy. 

Instead of writing out the link in a post like this:  www.samsonmedia.net  I will show you how to elegantly create a link like THIS

Also note, there are two types of basic links you can create:

• links that open in the same window
• links that open in a new window

WHEN CHOOSING NEW WINDOW OR SAME WINDOW

Here’s my two cents on how to use each one where and when:

As you’ll see described in the tutorial below, when adding a link you are faced with the two choices listed above.  I recommend selecting LINK TO A NEW WINDOW if you are linking to someone else’s website.  This will literally open the link in a new window when someone clicks on it, keeping your website open behind the link.  The visitor doesn’t really leave your site so much as they are adding another option.  It’s less confusing to the reader and makes a clearer distinction between your website content and the website content of another website.

When adding a link to your own pages, such as when you refer to a past post or something on one of your own pages, that’s when I recommend using OPEN LINK IN SAME WINDOW.  This will prevent all these pages popping up and the reader can easily use their browsers forward and back arrow to navigate back and forth.  It’s more intuative, I believe.  Having said that, you certainly have the ability to do it either way.  Experiment and see what I mean.  You can, of course, always change it from one to the other with the click of a button.  But one thing I would strongly recommend:  which ever way you choose, be consistent.  If you make all external links open in a new window, do it that way consistently throughout your website.

Here’s exactly how it’s done: