diff --git a/link.module b/link.module
index b0c53c3..615c975 100644
--- a/link.module
+++ b/link.module
@@ -496,12 +496,13 @@ function _link_sanitize(&$item, $delta, &$field, $instance, &$entity) {
   $url_parts = _link_parse_url($url);
 
   if (!empty($url_parts['url'])) {
-    $item['url'] = $url_parts['url'];
-    $item += array(
-      'query' => isset($url_parts['query']) ? $url_parts['query'] : NULL,
-      'fragment' => isset($url_parts['fragment']) ? $url_parts['fragment'] : NULL,
-      'absolute' => !empty($instance['settings']['absolute_url']),
-      'html' => TRUE,
+    $item['url'] = url($url_parts['url'],
+      array(
+        'query' => isset($url_parts['query']) ? $url_parts['query'] : NULL,
+        'fragment' => isset($url_parts['fragment']) ? $url_parts['fragment'] : NULL,
+        'absolute' => TRUE,
+        'html' => TRUE,
+      )
     );
   }