Hyperlinks and Backlinks: What is it Called When You Link a Resource?

Hyperlinks and Backlinks: What is it Called When You Link a Resource?

So, you’re sitting there writing a blog post or maybe a research paper, and you realize you need to point people toward another website. You do the thing. You highlight the text, hit Ctrl+K, and paste a URL. But what is it called when you link a resource? If you’re talking to a developer, they’ll call it a hyperlink. If you’re talking to a grizzled SEO veteran who drinks too much espresso, they’ll call it a backlink or an outbound link depending on which direction the "juice" is flowing.

Words matter. Especially in tech.

Basically, the most common term is a hyperlink. It’s the foundational element of the World Wide Web. Without it, the internet is just a bunch of isolated digital islands with no bridges. Tim Berners-Lee didn't just invent a way to look at documents; he invented a way to connect them. When you link a resource, you’re creating a relationship between two pieces of data. It’s a vote of confidence. Or sometimes, it’s just a "hey, look at this weird thing I found."

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The Technical Reality of Hyperlinking

When you link a resource, the actual HTML tag is an `