diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index ba1aef1..8df9f46 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -1,2 +1,7 @@
 # tszip
-Compression utilities for tree sequences
+[![CircleCI](https://circleci.com/gh/tskit-dev/tszip.svg?style=svg)](https://circleci.com/gh/tskit-dev/tszip) [![Build status](https://ci.appveyor.com/api/projects/status/792u70f5yndxcpes?svg=true)](https://ci.appveyor.com/project/tskit-dev/tszip) [![codecov](https://codecov.io/gh/tskit-dev/tszip/branch/master/graph/badge.svg)](https://codecov.io/gh/tskit-dev/tszip) [![Documentation Status](https://readthedocs.org/projects/tszip/badge/?version=latest)](https://tszip.readthedocs.io/en/latest/?badge=latest)
+
+Gzip-like compression for [tskit](https://tskit.readthedocs.io/) tree sequences.
+
+Please see the [documentation](https://tszip.readthedocs.io/) for more details
+and [installation instructions](https://tszip.readthedocs.io/en/latest/installation.html).
diff --git a/README.rst b/README.rst
index 1d0c03f..beadbfd 100644
--- a/README.rst
+++ b/README.rst
@@ -1,12 +1,9 @@
 
-Compression utilities for tree sequences.
+Gzip-like compression for tskit tree sequences.
 
 Tszip is a command line utility and Python library for converting the
 ``.trees`` files used by `tskit <https://tskit.readthedocs.org/en/stable/>`_
 into a highly compressed format. Please see the
-`documentation <https://tszip.readthedocs.org/en/stable/installation.html>`_
-for more details.
-
-Please see the
-`installation instructions <https://tszip.readthedocs.org/en/stable/installation.html>`_
-to get started quickly.
+`documentation <https://tszip.readthedocs.org/en/stable>`_
+for more details and
+`installation instructions <https://tszip.readthedocs.org/en/stable/installation.html>`_.