Wikipedia:Make only links relevant to the context

Make only links relevant to the context. It is not useful to mark all possible words as hyperlinks; only mark words that are relevant to the context of the article. In particular, when editing the text for a random topic, don't link to years and dates; unless an article relies heavily on the surrounding historical context, the article for a particular year or date is relevant to very few of the articles that link to it.

See debate.

Rules of thumb for linking

What should be linked:

• birth and death dates
• major connections with the subject of the article, that is, if it's an article about, say, B.B. King, there should be links on blues, guitar, and singer
• significant names mentioned in the article, defining significant to mean people or events who deserve an article. If an article mentions the Rolling Stones that would deserve a link, even if there would be no article on the Rolling Stones yet; however, B.B. King's bass player should not get a link unless and until an article about him is written.
• General, broad topics touched on in the article, like novel, autobiography, saxophone, jazz, American Civil War, as well as collective pointers like the 1960s, the 17th century.
• Anything you think there should be an article about. Linking enough times gets it on the Most Wanted list.

What should not be linked:

• dates of marriage, book publication, and other dates between the big two unless they bear some kind of significant connection with the date. That Bob Dylan arrived in New York City in 1961 is significant because it was a zeitgeist event. Ask yourself, "Would this event ever appear on a timeline under this date?"
• Every song on a record album. "Helter Skelter" deserves an article, "Back in the U.S.S.R." doesn't.
• Likewise, every book and short story by an author, unless you're prepared to back it up by writing all the articles, as the Robert Heinlein enthusiasts did. Otherwise, leave the various works unlinked until you get around to writing an article.
• Similarly, in an article about a municipality that contains a list of all villages it comprises, a village need not be linked until it gets a separate article; the latter is needed only when so much info about it is added that that does not fit well in the municipality article.

Alternatively, allwiki is the idea that people create pages where all the words, phrases or expressions are links to Wikipedia or Wiktionary articles.

An example:

• Allwiki is the idea that people create pages where all of[?] the words, sentences or expressions are links to Wikipedia or Wiktionary articles[?].