Linking “into” your website

Your posts, pages, and custom content are all on the same website, but how connected are they really? Deep linking from peripheral content to core content facilitates a web of interconnection beyond the mere sharing of space on a platform.¹²

Peripheral and core content

In WordPress, this question is often, is it a page or a post?

One of the most important differences between a page and a post is whether or not viewers can tell when it was made. Pages are not visibly time-stamped, and the content is edited to stay up-to-date. In other words, the content is evergreen. Posts are dated and usually sorted by date, and ongoing editing and updating is not required.³

Two common kinds of deep links are calls to action, and context creators.

Calls to action

Deep linking is often a call to action. Do you have a page that talks about an event? Do you have a product for sale? Do you have a registration page, or contact page? These all warrant calls to action.

Context creation

Another reason to deep link is that it gives more context to your posts. Chances are your posts are smaller-scale, more in-depth extensions of the pages on your website. When we link to older material, we give context and create a digital web of reference. If someone shares a post through social media many people might read the post without having knowledge of the broader context of your website. If, however, there is a link within the body of that post they will know there is a bigger picture and will have easy access.

Here’s how it’s done

Deep links can happen in two ways. The most common way is to turn anchor text into hyperlinks.

If you want to create a higher visibility link, which are more commonly considered calls to action, then you might want to consider a button.⁴

1. It’s a little like running through Platform 9 ¾.
2. Wikipedia never gets enough credit.
3. Deep links are also good for SEO (Search Engine Optimization) in the sense that they indicate to search engines, like Google, which URLs are important. Each link is a little signal to a search engine that something has status, and deserves to be seen.
4. In the new WordPress Gutenberg Editor this is doable by selecting the plus sign to create a new block, searching “button” and voila. There are some nicer button blocks found in additional plugins.