Thu 2 Dec 2004
You know how we are told not to use “click here” for link text and PDFs are Unfit for Human Consumption? Check out the #1 google search results for “click here”
Thu 2 Dec 2004
You know how we are told not to use “click here” for link text and PDFs are Unfit for Human Consumption? Check out the #1 google search results for “click here”
Hi Joe - I have taken the opposing viewpoint in “‘Click Here’ Is Not A Bad Thing”
I’d be interested to hear your thoughts.
Cross posted
In general, the use of ‘click here’ is because of writers are used to writing for paper and are not used to writing for the interenet.
Using ‘click here’ is the www’s equivalent of putting ‘turn the page’ on the bottom of every single page of a book. It is unnecessary in a well-written document.
On paper, the actions take place outside the medium. On the www, the actions a user takes occur within the medium.
Also, there are accessibility issues, particularly for users of assistive technologies like magnifiers or screen readers: a lot of users use the list links function which would read the page as “Click here, Click here, Click here, Click here, Click here, Click here, Click here, Click here, Click here, Click here, Click here, Click here”
Search engines in general rank link text as more important.
Users know that clicking invokes some sort of action. Let the action be the link. i.e.: ‘Do Whatever’, not ‘to do whatever, click here’
I agree with you about w3c’s ‘get Amaya’ example. if they actualy want you to get Amaya from a link, the whole phrase ‘get Amaya’ should be the link, or even better: ‘Download Amaya’
Joe - thanks for stopping by. Good points about search engines emphasizing link text, and about the List Links function in assistive technologies.