How to Organise a Writer's Link Page

To organise a writer's link page, put the one link that serves your current goal at the top, group everything else under three or four plain headings, and label every link with what the reader will find rather than the platform it lives on. Then keep it fast, check the links on a schedule, and cut anything that no longer earns its place. The rest of this guide turns that into concrete decisions, with references to the accessibility and search documentation that explains why each choice works.

A link page here means any single page that gathers your main destinations: a "links" page on your own site, or a page from a link-in-bio service that you point to from social profiles. The advice is tool-neutral and applies to both.

Decide the job of the page first

A link page answers one question for a stranger: where should I go next? Before you add a single link, write down who arrives on it. For most writers there are three likely visitors: a reader who has just finished something of yours, an editor or commissioner checking you out, and someone who wants to follow your work over time.

Your primary link is the one you most want a visitor to tap if they tap nothing else. During a book launch, that is the book page. If you are pitching for freelance work, it is your portfolio or a contact page. If the newsletter is where your income comes from, it is the signup page. Only one link holds that slot at a time, and you change it deliberately when your priorities change, not every time you publish something.

Give the primary link a short supporting line underneath, such as "New essay collection, out in paperback" or "Taking commissions for reviews and features". That line does the persuading so the link label can stay short.

Group the remaining links under clear headings

Below the primary link, cluster everything else. Most writers can work with four groups:

• Read my work: recent pieces, selected clips, book pages
• Work with me: services, a commissioning or contact page
• Stay in touch: newsletter and the social profiles you actually use
• About: a short biography and a press or media page

Real headings matter for more than looks. The W3C's tutorial on page headings explains that people using screen readers often move through a page by its headings, so marking group titles up as headings (not just bold text) lets them jump straight to "Work with me". If your link-in-bio tool only offers a flat list, use its divider or header blocks where they exist.

If you find yourself writing six or seven groups, that is usually a sign that some of the material belongs on a page of your own website, with a single link to it from the link page.

Write labels that describe the destination

A label should tell the reader what is behind it. "My Substack" or "Blog" says where something is hosted; "Weekly essays on Victorian fiction" says what they will get.

This is also what the accessibility standard asks for. WCAG 2.2 success criterion 2.4.4, explained in the W3C's guide to link purpose in context, says the purpose of each link should be clear from the link text or its surrounding context. A stricter level, link purpose from the link text alone, suits link pages well, because each button usually stands on its own with no sentence around it.

Search engines read labels in the same way. Google's documentation on crawlable links and anchor text asks for anchor text that is "descriptive, reasonably concise, and relevant", and lists "Click here" and "Read more" as examples that are too generic. The same page notes that when an image is used as a link, Google treats the image's alt text as the anchor text, so logo buttons need proper alt text too.

Order links by what visitors want

Writers tend to order links by pride. Visitors arrive with a task. Within each group, put the link that serves the most common task first, and order the groups themselves by how often each type of visitor shows up.

A sensible default is primary link, then reading links, then working-with-me links, then social profiles. Social links usually go last because they send people away to someone else's feed, where your work competes with everything else.

Keep the total short. The design principle known as Hick's Law holds that the time it takes to make a decision increases with the number and complexity of choices. There is no verified ideal number of links for a writer's page, and you should be wary of anyone quoting one. A practical test is to read the page on a phone: if the most important destinations do not all fit on the first screen or two, trim or move some of the overflow to a page on your own site.

Plan for change. When a launch period ends, move the book link down into a permanent "Books" heading and promote whatever matters next.

Decide what to include and what to cut

A link page is a filter, not an archive. Include links that serve a current goal or that a new reader genuinely needs. Good candidates:

• your best or most recent piece, or a selected clips page
• book pages that go to a retailer list or your own book page rather than a single shop, if you want to stay neutral
• one commissioning or contact route
• a newsletter signup, if you send one
• one or two social profiles where you post regularly

Cut profiles you have abandoned, duplicate links to the same place, and old pieces unless they still define your work. Freelances in journalism may want a listing in a professional directory such as the NUJ Freelance Directory and can link to that listing from the "Work with me" group, provided it is kept up to date.

For paywalled clips, add a short note ("subscriber article") so the reader is not surprised, or link to a version you are permitted to share. If you are unsure whether you can republish a piece on your own site, check your contract with the publication before you post it.

Keep the page light and fast

A link page should load almost instantly, because most visitors arrive from a phone app with patience measured in seconds. Google's Core Web Vitals give a useful benchmark: web.dev advises that sites aim for a Largest Contentful Paint of 2.5 seconds or less, measured at the 75th percentile of page loads. The companion guide to optimising LCP covers the usual culprits, chiefly oversized images and render-blocking resources.

In practice, that means one small portrait or cover image rather than a gallery, no autoplay video, and no more third-party scripts than you need. Make buttons easy to tap. WCAG 2.2 criterion 2.5.8, described in the W3C guide to minimum target size, sets a minimum of 24 by 24 CSS pixels for pointer targets, or enough spacing around smaller ones, so that people do not hit the wrong link by accident. Full-width stacked buttons, as most link-in-bio pages use, comfortably clear that bar.

Connect it to your own site and profiles

If you control the link page's code (for example, a page on your own domain), you can help other services confirm that your profiles belong to you. Mastodon's profile documentation explains that when a page links back to your Mastodon profile with a rel="me" attribute, Mastodon shows a verification checkmark next to that link. MDN describes the general rel="me" link type used for this kind of identity link.

Structured data can make the same connection for search engines. The schema.org Person type includes a sameAs property for listing the URLs of your other profiles. Google's ProfilePage structured data documentation shows sameAs used this way, though that markup is aimed at sites where creators share first-hand perspectives, such as forums and social platforms, so treat it as an aid to understanding rather than a promise of any particular search feature. We cover author-site markup in more depth on uniblog.org.

Track lightly and maintain on a schedule

Click data tells you which links people use, which is the only reliable basis for cutting. If your link page sits on a third-party service, its built-in statistics may be enough. If you want to see link page traffic in your own analytics, Google's help page on campaign URLs and UTM parameters explains how tags such as utmsource and utmmedium identify where a visit came from.

Tracking has legal strings attached in the UK. The ICO's guidance on cookies and similar technologies says you must tell people about cookies, explain what they do and get consent, with an exception for cookies that are essential to a service the user has requested. The same page notes that the ICO is consulting on revised guidance on storage and access technologies (checked October 2026), so check it again before adding new analytics tools.

Then set a monthly reminder and run through a short checklist:

1. Does the primary link still match your current goal?
2. Does every link still work? Tap each one on a phone, and treat any page that returns a 404 Not Found status as a link to fix or remove.
3. Has a publication moved or removed one of your pieces? The Internet Archive's help page on saving pages in the Wayback Machine explains how Save Page Now gives you a permanent URL for a single page, which is worth doing for important clips while they are still live.
4. Are the social profiles still ones you use?
5. Is anything on the page older than its usefulness?

A broken link on a page whose only job is linking is an avoidable bad first impression. Fifteen minutes a month prevents it.

Frequently asked questions

How many links should a writer's link page have?

There is no researched magic number. Keep it short enough that the important destinations are visible on a phone without much scrolling, and move overflow to a page on your own site.

Should the newsletter link go at the top?

Only if the newsletter is your main goal right now. Otherwise put it in a "Stay in touch" group below your primary link.

Is a link page a substitute for an author website?

It works best as a doorway. A page on your own domain keeps the links under your control if a service changes its terms or closes, and gives you somewhere to send readers who want more.