Editing Overlinking (section)

{{Short description|Excess number of links on a webpage}}
{{for|advice on use of links in editing Wikipedia specifically|Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Linking#Overlinking and underlinking}}

{{More citations needed|date=April 2025}}
'''Overlinking''' in a [[webpage]] or other [[hyperlink]]ed text is having too many hyperlinks (links).<ref>{{cite web
|url=http://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia_term/0%2C2542%2Ct%3Doverlinking%26i%3D48688%2C00.asp
|title=PCMag.com Encyclopedia
|publisher=[[PC Magazine]]
|accessdate=2007-01-19
|archive-date=2012-06-14
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120614220146/http://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia_term/0%2C2542%2Ct%3Doverlinking%26i%3D48688%2C00.asp
|url-status=dead
}}</ref><ref name="Dvorak">{{cite news 
  | author = [[John C. Dvorak|Dvorak, John C.]]
  | title = Missing Links
  | publisher = [[PC Magazine]]
  | date = April 2002
  | url = http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_zdpcm/is_200204/ai_ziff25363
  | accessdate =  }}</ref>

It is characterized by:

* A large proportion of the words in each sentence are rendered as links.{{cn|date=December 2023}}
* Links that have little information content, such as linking on specific years like [[1995]], or unnecessary linking of common words used in the common way, for which the reader can be expected to [[understand]] the [[word]]'s full meaning in [[wiktionary:context|context]], without any hyperlink help.{{cn|date=December 2023}}
* A [[hyperlink]] for any single term is excessively repeated in the same article. "Excessive" is usually more than one link for the same term in a line or a paragraph, since in this case, one or more duplicate hyperlinks will almost certainly then appear needlessly on the viewer's screen. The purpose of links is to direct the reader to a new spot at the point(s) where the reader is most likely to take a temporary detour due to needing more information. Providing more hyperlink samples for the same word in a short space (as in the example of this paragraph) doesn't help much.{{cn|date=October 2023}}