Internal links create the structure of your site and external links add to the depth of information in your site. However, too many links within a block of text can disrupt continuity and understanding.

Your readers construct a mental structure as they follow each link, thus creating their conceptual flow of your content. This short-term memory is unsuitable for storing too many ideas. Just as there can be too many interconnected rooms in an art museum, a reader quickly becomes disoriented and confused by a page with too many links.

Use links to your advantage:

• Give a quick explanation of a concept or a short illustration of the point. Your purpose is to have them look at the definition of a word off-site and then quickly return to your narrative. So embed these links in your text to make them more topical and explicit, but only link once -- refrain from linking the same word time and again.
• Offer a detailed exploration of a topic. If you would like your readers to explore further in an external site, explain what they are supposed to find at that site before giving them the link. This will make it easy for them to find the pertinent information and thus direct their comprehension of the material. Since exploring another site usually means switching the train of thought, put these kinds of links at the beginning or end of your paragraphs. In the former, you can continue with your information where they've left off; or in the latter, 'get your words in' before letting them loose. If possible, help them start a new train of thought by opening the link in a new window:
  • <a href="http://google.com" target="_new">

For copyright and intellectual property reasons, it is much easier to link to a page rather than to copy their content onto your page. However, when you link to pages in an external site, be aware that the site owner might move the pages or even take down the entire site. This is known as link rot. Avoid linking to pages which may have a short life span, e.g. news of the day or blog entries. Check these links at least once every semester and be prepared to seek out alternatives. Keep an archive of a page if the article is crucial to your course so that if the page ever goes missing, you can request permission directly from the source to use it in your course.

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