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Don't use "click here" for link text

dont-click-here.com

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Re: Don't use "click here" for link text

#31

Post by philsquared_ »

gregjor wrote: post #14

> But people won't know where to click? > It's not 1995. I agree in principle with the article. But I have spent time reading help desk tickets so I know that average users often don't know where to click unless you push their nose in it. I can't count how many times users have said "I was afraid to click the link" or "I don't know where that button will go" because the UI presented links and buttons with meaningful…

Agreed. We have many "old" people that use our website and I can tell you for a fact that the "click here" is less confusing than some random blue link (which at this point has lost it's meaning because of seo keyword stuffing).

Not to mention "click here" is a call to action and a random blue link is not. Call to actions are important.

Re: Don't use "click here" for link text

#32

Post by teqsun »

nerdjon wrote: post #16

I think the better option is... why not both? Update the first example to something like: For additional order details, go to your account by clicking here. and `go to your account by clicking here` is the link.

I agree. Click here also provides better context if the CSS doesn't clearly indicate a hyperlink or if the user is unfamiliar with html link styling, and in cases where the web browser veers into non-standard territory.

Re: Don't use "click here" for link text

#33

Post by indymike »

I believed this until I kept getting tickets about people not knowing where to click. So, we made links look like buttons, and stopped getting tickets. Then our designer didn't like the buttons, so the click here links were the only option.

People struggle with discovery, even though they shouldn't.

Re: Don't use "click here" for link text

#34

Post by scrozier »

I'm generally with the author on this, but their examples are inconsistent. I think from a language perspective, the linked text should be a verb phrase. We want the user to do something (click here), and verbs are "do words."

So, instead of

For additional order details, go to [your account].

use

For additional order details, [go to your account].

(The author does this inconsistently.)

And in this case:

To review or adjust your AutoPay settings, [click here].

You can review or adjust your [AutoPay settings] at any time.

they change the meaning of the sentence ever so slightly with the extraneous "at any time," showing that it is not always simple to remove the "click here."

Maybe in this case, it should be a button or a simple stand-alone link, like

[Review or adjust your AutoPay settings]

Re: Don't use "click here" for link text

#35

Post by grbrr »

xnx wrote: post #22

Amazingly, this has been the recommendation for at least the last 27(!) years: https://www.nngroup.com/articles/be-succinct-writing-for-the... People who headed that advice benefited from better human usability and improved "SEO" performance due to keyword relevance. Web tools should have warnings about "click here" text in the same way they do syntax errors.

Jakob Nielsen’s advice is, to put it politely, not “the recommendation” but rather “someone’s recommendation.”

Re: Don't use "click here" for link text

#37

Post by JimDabell »

grbrr wrote: post #35
xnx wrote: post #22

Amazingly, this has been the recommendation for at least the last 27(!) years: https://www.nngroup.com/articles/be-succinct-writing-for-the... People who headed that advice benefited from better human usability and improved "SEO" performance due to keyword relevance. Web tools should have warnings about "click here" text in the same way they do syntax errors.

Jakob Nielsen’s advice is, to put it politely, not “the recommendation” but rather “someone’s recommendation.”

It wasn’t just Nielsen saying this. Pretty much anybody who knew anything about usability or accessibility was telling people not to use “click here” for links since the 90s, and once Google arrived with PageRank, SEO people started saying the same thing. This has been best practice for at least a quarter century for multiple reasons.

Re: Don't use "click here" for link text

#38

Post by fsckboy »

desbo wrote: post #36

Good advice! A rule of thumb I use is that the sentence should make sense if it was read outside of a browser, which results in roughly the same thing.

but if the sentence makes sense outside of the browser where there is no place to click, why should the sentence read the same inside the browser where there is a place to click?

your (collective) POV doesn't need to be explained to me, I get it, it's a fun little intellectual puzzle to write a sentence which works both ways and magically the user intuits that clicking is the thing to do, but none of that says the other way is wrong. People choose to do it the other way because it makes sense to them. Who are you to say "no, it doesn't make sense to you"

Re: Don't use "click here" for link text

#39

Post by treflop »

scrozier wrote: post #34

I'm generally with the author on this, but their examples are inconsistent. I think from a language perspective, the linked text should be a verb phrase. We want the user to do something (click here), and verbs are "do words." So, instead of For additional order details, go to [your account]. use For additional order details, [go to your account]. (The author does this inconsistently.) And in this case: To review or…

I saw this the other day:

  Covered in [The Whatever Times] was an article about something something,
The link went to the article and not the Times home page. That bothered me more than it should have.

Re: Don't use "click here" for link text

#40

Post by Sohcahtoa82 »

indymike wrote: post #33

I believed this until I kept getting tickets about people not knowing where to click. So, we made links look like buttons, and stopped getting tickets. Then our designer didn't like the buttons, so the click here links were the only option. People struggle with discovery, even though they shouldn't.

How were your links styled?

I ask because you say people struggle with discovery, but modern UI trends are all about simplifying and flattening, which comes at the cost of discovery.

I remember in the 90s, links were typically blue and underlined, maybe even bold? Links stuck out like a sore thumb. These days, that's considered ugly, and you might be lucky if links are even underlined.

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