Links written with unique and descriptive phrases don’t make us do the extra work of building this mental model as we read. If several links on a page say, “click here,” we have to remember the context of each one. An astonishing percentage of what I do with my clients’ web copy involves eradicating the phrase “click here” from their links.
But this aspect of the user experience—the language used in hyperlinks—is commonly overlooked. Picture this—you’re reading through a website trying to find a link to a resource that you urgently need, but all the hyperlinks that you encounter say “Click here” or “Read more.” You don’t know what the links are about. Using a more descriptive link, that includes keywords that are relevant to the content of the linked page is more beneficial. When anchor text is descriptive and relevant to the linked content, it helps search engines understand what the target page is about, potentially improving its ranking for related search queries. Back in the mists of time, when anyone could be a web designer, they would fill the pages with this blue underlined text, assuming visitors needed explicit instructions for how to navigate hyperlinks. Screen readers offer an option for visually-impaired users to skim through an email or webpage simply by listing all the linked phrases.
- Similar to the way visual users skip visually through a page to gain context of the content and links, screen readers highlight and sound out links on a page.
- It’s also good to be aware that some screen readers farm the links on the page and present them in one go.
- Don’t be afraid to experiment to optimize calls to action by inviting the action.
- But this aspect of the user experience—the language used in hyperlinks—is commonly overlooked.
- This article was originally shared on tosbourn.com The main reasons why we shouldn't use click here as link text
When I first started writing this article, I thought there was only enough content for a few paragraphs, so thank you for making it this far! If you were citing an article, you might link to it, but you wouldn’t expect your reader to follow the link, read everything, and come back. You can still use in-line lists, but you need to add some context. By now I bet you’re on board with the idea that we should do away with “click here” text.
Impact on SEO
However, if the link text is uninformative using “click here” the search engine will not make a strong connection between the link text and the targeted page, negatively impacting the page’s SEO. Google is a clever bot, however we need to help it understand our content and the best way to do that is to put users first. Screen readers rely on link text to provide context and meaning that allows users to navigate your website.
SEO? More like SE-NO
You might want to try to structure your sentences so that the link anchors fall at the end. Rather, nouns enable the user to easily scan the link anchor and quickly grasp what they’re clicking to without having to read the entire sentence or paragraph. Concrete nouns are best in my opinion because they are more immediate and vidid and give users a better idea of what they will get when they click through. Below are a few techniques to help you make the most of links. What your links say can say a lot about your website. A change in color can give links higher contrast — and a change in shape, such as underlining or bolding, even more so.
Published in UX Collective
You may have used this hyperlink text in your own writing when you want to direct readers to another page or document. After all, if we keep them in mind first — through improving the overall user experience — we will benefit in return with better website performance (search engines included). Plus, URLs don’t contain spaces and using long URLs as links may result in unwanted horizontal scrolling. In fact, even deferring the keyword to the end of the link (e.g. “click here for product documentation”) has the same drawback. If you use an uninformative phrase, like “click here,” then the search engine will not make a close enough connection between the link text and the targeted page.
Habits are hard to break, especially when they’re reinforced by our peers and other professionals who don’t know any better. The challenge is to make your links communicate “click here” without actually saying “click here,” and there are many ways to do this. The next time you consider using the words “click” or “here” for links, remember the effect it will have on the experience. It’s also a good idea to choose the text of your link anchors as specific as possible. Instead, it’s better to label the links with something that describes what the user is clicking to, so that distinguishing between the links becomes easier.
To be clear, the bolded words are what you’d link over. Here are some excellent examples of alternative anchor text. Moreover, this approach allows you to link over the same phrase multiple times without confusing anyone. This example isn’t CTA-related, but it gets the point across.
For instance, on a Samsung phone, going into Settings and then to the Accessibility section shows the TalkBack option. Mobile phones come equipped with screen readers, which are applications that uk casino allow an automated voice to read out contents on a screen — messages, numbers, the names of apps, and so on. When selecting and posting an image for posting it on X, the edit option provided can be used for adding text. Accounts across X have used it to make jokes, while brands and organisations have used it as a marketing tool to spread their taglines or slogans. When a user clicks on the post, a small box appears, with the word “ALT” written on it. Accounts on X post rectangular photos with a white background and black text saying “Click here”.
