How to Create a Download Link on Your Website | LinkDoctor™ (2024)

A download link is essential for establishing a good reputation for your website. Through these download links, you’re providing additional resources that can be helpful for your audience. This improves the overall user experience of your website.

The tricky part is that your download link should be relevant to the content along with it. Therefore, it should fit in naturally. It shouldn’t look promotional as well to avoid a bad light on your site.

In this article, we’ll discuss how you can add a download link to your website. We’ll look into two ways:

1. Adding a Download Link Using HTML.

2. Adding a Download Link Using WordPress.

Let’s get to it!

Create Download Link Using HTML

An HTML download link will allow your website’s visitors to download any file from your website. To make your files downloadable in HTML format, follow these steps that we’ve prepared for you.

But first, you have to understand the “same-origin policy” that mitigates potential malicious documents to be downloaded. This is possible by allowing users to download only the files that are from that website originally. It is a security measure to trace websites that allow harmful content to be downloaded from the Internet.

Here are the steps you can do to create a download link in HTML.

1. Use the HTML anchor tag < a > … < /a > to make the file appear as a link on the webpage.

2. Set the href property to the download file.

3. Add the download attribute after setting the href redirect.

Example:

<a href="image_location.zip" download>link_text</a>or<a href="image_location.zip" download> <img src="image_location.zip" alt="alt_text"></a>

Download Restrictions

The “download” attribute is only compatible with URLs from the same origin. The href should also contain the origin of the file for this to work. The file you’re referring to must also originally belong to your website.

Now users can see the download link on the webpage. They can right-click the download link and click on the “Save As…” to start the download. You can also rename the file automatically upon download by changing the value of the “download” attribute.

You can change the name by simply doing this:

<a href="image_location.zip" download="newname">

You can also use FileZilla Client to upload the file on the server. Like webpage uploads, you also have to set the privacy and upload it as a public file. This is to allow access to everyone that has the link to the file.

Create Download Link on WordPress

WordPress is a versatile CMS. It’s possible to add different kinds of content to WordPress. And it’s very easy to use!

1. Choose any file that you want to upload on your website. You have to compress the file into a .zip file.

2. Go to your WordPress dashboard and click on the Media toolbar.

3. Click on the “Add New” and choose whichever file you want to upload.

4. Click on the new image in your library. Once the upload is complete, it will appear as a new image on your library.

5. Copy the “File URL“. Your file is now uploaded on the WordPress server and can be used on any webpage.

Easy, right? WordPress is very user-friendly when it comes to website optimizer tools. You can also use WordPress website plug-ins to optimize the file before uploading it to your website.

Upload the File from Media Library to the Webpage

Using the Visual Builder plug-in, you can easily place the copied URL to whatever element you have on your page. There are a lot of other plug-ins you can choose from for this task.

1. Enable Visual Builder on WordPress.
2. Click on the settings.
3. Add the URL of the file that you copied on the element on the webpage.
4. Change the Button Text to change the text for the download link.

And there you have it! The file is already online on your website if your audience chooses to click on it.

Final Word

Now you can upload any file you want as a download link on your website. You can upload it in HTML or WordPress. It’s easy to do and can be a good way to gather new audiences and rank higher on Google.

With a download link on your site, you are providing resources for your visitors. This makes your website more valuable in terms of competition. If you’re successful with your attempt using this guide, leave us a comment on your experience.

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