How to link (W4)

On this page you will find information about:

• Linking to other W4 pages and more examples of recommended and non-recommended link formats
• Linking to external pages and pages published in W3
• How to write good link texts
• UD tips and recommendations for linking correctly

Linking to other W4 pages

We use relative links or the search function to link to other W4 pages.

Option 1: Search function

Type in the title of the page you want to link to, and select the correct page from the list that appears. If you can’t find the page via the search function, you must use relative links.

Note! The search function only works in fields that only allow URLs. In body text fields (CKEditor) you cannot use the search function to find pages. When adding links in such text fields, you must therefore use option 2: relative links.

Option 2: Relative links

A relative link is an internal link to another page on www4.uib.no. You should use the part of the URL that comes after “uib.no” (incl. language code if it’s an English page).

Example:

• Full URL:
  1. https://www4.uib.no/forskning/toppforskning-og-satsinger/sentre-for-fremragende-forskning
  2. https://www4.uib.no/en/research/research-excellence-and-priority-areas/centres-of-excellence-coe
• Relative link:
  1. /forskning/toppforskning-og-satsinger/sentre-for-fremragende-forskning
  2. /en/research/research-excellence-and-priority-areas/centres-of-excellence-coe

The advantage of using relative links or the search function is that you stay in edit mode while logged in. If you use the full URL, you’ll be logged out of edit mode when you click the link, even if you’re signed in.

Correct and incorrect ways to link to W4 pages

Correct:

• Add the page via the search function. Type in the title in the URL field and select the correct page.
• Use relative links: The part after uib.no. Examples:
  • /en/research/phd-education/take-a-phd-at-uib
  • /forskning/phd-utdanning/ta-ein-phd-ved-uib

Incorrect:

• w4.uib.no: Only available while connected to the UiB network. Examples:
  • https://w4.uib.no/forskning
  • https://w4.uib.no/en/research
• www4.uib.no: Not recommended, since the site loads more slowly and you’ll be logged out of edit mode when you click the link. Examples:
  • https://www4.uib.no/forskning
  • https://www4.uib.no/en/research
• Node number: Unstable, may redirect to the wrong language version or to a W3 page with the same node number. Examples:
  • /node/143616
  • /en/node/143616

Linking to other websites or W3 pages

To link to other websites or to pages published in W3 (the ‘old’ www.uib.no), you must use absolute links. An absolute link is a link that includes the full address being linked to, for example:

• https://www.cristin.no.

This is the only option when linking out of your own website.

How do you write good link texts?

Don’t write “Read more” or “Click here” as link text. Users with screen readers are often only read a list of the links, so it’s important that the link texts are descriptive.

Good internal links help the search engine understand what the link is about. Feel free to include important keywords!

Examples of link texts:

Click here to read more – Bad
Here you can read more about the study programs in history – Bad
Read more about the study programs in history – A bit better
Read more about the study programs in history – Good

Tips and recommendations for linking correctly

See the Norwegian Supervisory Authority for Universal Design’s guidance: Guidance on links and universal design (7 min read)