Hyperlinks
Associated Content discourages the use of active hyperlinks in an article body. It is recommended that you limit active URL to the “resources” section of the article. According to the AC submission guidelines it is preferred that any URL in the body be simple text (e.g. www.google.com). To create an active link in the resource area use a standard HTML anchor tag like:
<a href=”http://www.accentuateservices.com”>A Writer’s Forum</a>
Only the words “A Writer’s Forum” would display, but clicking them would direct your browser to the site, like this: A Writer’s Forum.
This is the basic anchor and link tag for HTML. There are other attributes that can be applied to the code, but the resources area of the Associated Content template is limited to 120 characters. You’ll want to keep it simple.
It is possible to use anchor tags in the article body. There are two ways to do this.
1. With the editor ON: Type the text; select the text; click the “create hyperlink” icon on the editor’s toolbar; type or paste the target URL.
2. With the editor OFF: use the above example to create the correct HTML code.
It is not guaranteed to produce the desired results. If any part of the tag matches one of AC’s keywords the publisher will hack your URL and put its own hyperlink in its place. What are the keywords? No one knows the entire list. Most U.S. state names are AC keywords. This makes embedding an anchor/href to a state government agency almost impossible in the article body.
You may create a link to The Official Website of the State of Alabama by typing the HTML tag <a href=”http://www.alabama.gov/portal/index.jsp”>The Official Website of the State of Alabama</a> . When you hit the publish button, AC’s “interlinking” software will scan your article and replace “Alabama” with their own link to search results from the AC web site.
The resulting link code would look like: <a href=”http://www.alabama.gov/portal/index.jsp”>The Official Website of the State of</a><a href=”http://www.associatedcontent.com/theme/123/Alabama.html”>Alabama</a> .
Notice that the anchor tag closes after “State of”. The result is two links, pointing to two destinations, but appearing as one continuous highlighted phrase in the article.
Some common words like “running” are AC keywords. Even celebrity names are keywords. You never know what will happen with a link embedded in the body of your article. Use them sparingly.
