Skip to main content

Alpha This guidance is in development. You can find current content and publishing guidance on GOV.UK.

Skip past section navigation
Text formatting

Links

Use square brackets [] around the link text and round brackets () around the full link URL. Make sure there are no spaces between the brackets or the link will not work.

For example:

Read the [GOV.UK homepage](https://www.gov.uk/).
Note:

Read the links design guidance for advice on how to use links in content, including writing effective link text.

Include links to Whitehall Publisher content

If you’re publishing on Whitehall Publisher and you want to link to other content on Whitehall Publisher, you can either:

  • use the full public URL of the content from GOV.UK
  • use the Whitehall Publisher link, if you’re linking to anything in the ‘Documents’ section

If you’re using the Whitehall Publisher link, you should delete the first part of the URL, that reads https://whitehall-admin.publishing.service.gov.uk/. Only use the ‘relative path’, for example: /government/admin/publications/123456.

Use ‘less than’ and ‘greater than’ arrows around email addresses to make them a link.

For example:

<example@example.com>

Will look like this:

example@example.com

Include links to a heading on a page (anchor links)

You can link to a particular heading on a GOV.UK page. This is known as an anchor link.

Note:

Try to avoid using anchor links if possible, as they can cause accessibility issues. If you do need to use them, read the links design guidance for advice on using anchor links.

To add an anchor link to a heading on the same page, do not include any URLs. Instead, put # and then the heading name with all words separated by hyphens.

For example, to link to the heading ‘Capacity management’ further down on the same page, use ‘#capacity-management’.

To add an anchor link to a heading on a different page:

  • use the URL
  • add # and then the heading name, with all words separated by hyphens

For example, to link to the heading ‘Risk management’ on another page, use ‘/management-guidance#risk-management’.

Either way, if the heading starts with any numbers, remove them from after the #. For example, to link to the heading ‘10 Downing Street’, use ‘#downing-street’.

If you’re creating a translation for a language that reads from right to left ​​(like Arabic or Urdu), switch the order of the code when adding links.

For example:

(https://www.gov.uk/vehicle-tax)[قم بتجديد قرص الضرائب الخاص بك].