If I wrote that Ignertia was hosting a website development seminar later next week, and you were interested in attending, chances are, I’m guessing you’d know what to do to get more information. And, after clicking on the magic blue text, you’d be taken right to the page you were looking for. How is it that you know what to do, without being told to “Click Here“?…

…It is for the same reasons that you know how to progress though a book without being told “Turn Page to Continue Reading“….conditioning! For this and other reasons, using “click here” is just bad form, despite how readily it is used.

Practicality

For years, the web has been training all of us to recognize that blue text surrounded by primarily black text is a link to another page. The heavy lifting is done, and although the transition from printed text to digital text on a screen started out with an assumption that “Click Here” was a necessary instruction, we are, at last, free! Free to again to communicate with each other as we once did in print, without distracting commands telling us how to turn the page, or consult the index to locate a topic.

Readability

Web writing should read as naturally as writing in a magazine or book, whenever possible. This means making use of links in context, or contextual links. Want to tell your clients about the latest data about the effectiveness of social media marketing?…don’t distract them by telling them where to click; concentrate on what you want them to know and put the links in the context of the information! It saves on text, and is generally easier to read.

Accessibility

Not only are phrases like “click here” unnecessary, but they can also hinder users of screen readers, and other non-graphical devices from using your website. It is not uncommon for people with visual impairments to navigate a site using only a list of the actual links from the page (in other words, a program which removes all the content and displays only the links of the page.) Of course, you can see the problem that would arise if there is a link labeled “click here“, not to mention multiple such links. On top of that, when you write “click here” you are implying that a pointing device is being used at all, which may not be the case. This is just one example of how links are used after being isolated from their context, but there are others.

Visibility

As stated in my favorite explaination of bad linking practices, “‘Click here’ is bad food for search engines“. Search engines (such as Google) can be unable to connect the words “click here” with other words used throughout the text. For example, this statement:

For more examples of how you can use of digital signage in your business, click here

This leaves a search engine with no way to associate the link with the content you’ve linked it to. With that, the indexing robot moves on, preferring instead to index the pages of your competition, who used the phrase:

The ways in which digital signage can enhance the client experience, are limited only by imagination.

Certainly, it is only one small facet of search engine optimization, but every step in the right direction helps you maximize a website’s search engine friendliness.

Now, having said all this, old habits die hard and I’m not so sure I couldn’t find the use of a “click here” or two on Ignertia.com as well. But hopefully we can all keep each other on our toes, and keep our mice pointed in the right direction.