An internal link is a type of

hyperlink In computing, a hyperlink, or simply a link, is a digital reference providing direct access to Data (computing), data by a user (computing), user's point and click, clicking or touchscreen, tapping. A hyperlink points to a whole document or to ...

on a

web page A web page (or webpage) is a World Wide Web, Web document that is accessed in a web browser. A website typically consists of many web pages hyperlink, linked together under a common domain name. The term "web page" is therefore a metaphor of pap ...

to another page or resource, such as an image or document, on the same

website A website (also written as a web site) is any web page whose content is identified by a common domain name and is published on at least one web server. Websites are typically dedicated to a particular topic or purpose, such as news, educatio ...

or domain. It is the opposite of an external link, a link that directs a user to content that is outside its domain. Hyperlinks are considered either "external" or "internal" depending on their target or destination. Generally, a link to a page outside the same domain or website is considered external, whereas one that points at another section of the same web page or to another page of the same website or domain is considered internal. Both internal and external links allow users of the website to navigate to another web page or resource. These definitions become clouded, however, when the same organization operates multiple domains functioning as a single web experience, e.g. when a secure commerce website is used for purchasing things displayed on a non-secure website. In these cases, links that are "external" by the above definition can conceivably be classified as "internal" for some purposes. Ultimately, an internal link points to a web page or resource in the same

root directory In a Computing, computer file system, and primarily used in the Unix and Unix-like operating systems, the root directory is the first or top-most Directory (computing), directory in a hierarchy. It can be likened to the trunk of a Tree (data st ...

. Similarly, seemingly "internal" links are in fact "external" for many purposes, for example in the case of linking among subdomains of a main domain, which are not operated by the same person(s). For example, a

blog A blog (a Clipping (morphology), truncation of "weblog") is an informational website consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries also known as posts. Posts are typically displayed in Reverse chronology, reverse chronologic ...

ging platform, such as

WordPress WordPress (WP, or WordPress.org) is a web content management system. It was originally created as a tool to publish blogs but has evolved to support publishing other web content, including more traditional websites, electronic mailing list, ma ...

Blogger A blog (a Clipping (morphology), truncation of "weblog") is an informational website consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries also known as posts. Posts are typically displayed in Reverse chronology, reverse chronologic ...

Tumblr Tumblr (pronounced "tumbler") is a microblogging and Social networking service, social networking website founded by David Karp in 2007 and is owned by American company Automattic. The service allows users to post multimedia and other content ...

host thousands of different blogs on subdomains, which are entirely unrelated and the authors of which are generally unknown to each other with no control over the links outside their own subdomain or blog. In these contexts one might view a link as "internal" only if it linked within the same blog, not to other blogs within the same domain. The existence of internal links are used in

websites A website (also written as a web site) is any web page whose content is identified by a common domain name and is published on at least one web server. Websites are typically dedicated to a particular topic or purpose, such as news, education ...

in order to navigate to multiple pages under a domain, making them a requirement if a website were to have more than one page (unless that page is meant to be inaccessible to the average visitor). Internal Links are also commonly used by web crawlers (e.g. for indexing a website for a

search engine A search engine is a software system that provides hyperlinks to web pages, and other relevant information on World Wide Web, the Web in response to a user's web query, query. The user enters a query in a web browser or a mobile app, and the sea ...

References

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See also

References