7 Reasons Not to Link with “Click Here”
Read more about: SEO, Website Tools + Tips
|
Stumble it! |
Delicious | 
Kirtsy | 
Digg
10
Comments
Do a Google search for click here. What you’ll find is around 1.7 billion (yes billion) instances in Google’s database where website owners have used “click here” as linked text on their website. Let me guess, that includes you, right?
But click here is seldom the best option for linked text. Take a look at these two examples:
To find out more about how I can help you grow your business, click here.
or
Find out more about how I can help you grow your business.
Which link tells you, as the site’s visitor, where you’ll go when you click the link? Isn’t it clearer in the second example that the link will lead you to how I can help you grow your business?
This may seem like splitting hairs a bit. But really, it’s not. There are a number of reasons to use descriptive linked text rather than click here. Here’s a few:
- Clarity - Descriptive linked text makes it much clearer where the link will you while click here basically just offers the command - click here. There’s no real clarity of why you’d click here or where you’ll end up.
- Scannable - If you scan most website pages, the links will stand out. They’re usually colored and styled differently than the text around them. So when you use descriptive linked text your visitors can scan your page for where they’d like to go next. Click here simply doesn’t offer the same advantage.
- SEO - If you care the least bit about search engine optimization, and you should, adding keywords in the links is one method of optimizing your text for search engines. Think about the 1.7 billion instances on websites that are using click here. Is that really what they’re hoping to rank for?
- Usability - As a big fan of the ‘don’t make me think’ principle of website design, I don’t want my users to have to interpret, guess or consider where my links will lead them. And that’s exactly what click here does - forces my visitors to think.
- Accessibility - Remember, not all your visitors will be using beautiful, graphics browsers to view your site. Some will use braille, aural or text browsers. Think about how visitors that are blind or have reading disabilities will use your site. Asking them to ‘click here’ gives them no idea where they’re going to end up.
- Readability - Isn’t it simply nicer to read content where the links have been crafted into the content rather than breaking it up with the old click here?
- Printability - More people print out your web pages than you might realize. Click here just doesn’t mean anything on a printed page and often breaks up the flow of text.
That said, you can use whatever linking strategies you like. Sometimes you can get higher response rates by directing people to click on a link. I suggest, however, not making a habit out of it. Use terms like ‘click to continue’ or ‘read on’ sparingly and only when you really need too. Otherwise, let your visitors know where they’re heading when then select a link.
So, how are you using click here. And what’s your overall in content link strategy?
Sparkplugging Founder Wendy Piersall is dang passionate about helping people start & grow a business while maintaining life balance (somehow). 
Dawud Miracle has one focus: to help you get it. The it? How your website, and blog, can change the way you do business. You can find out more at 
Teresa Morrow manages online book publicity and event promotion for authors, speakers and writers with her company 
I always wondered about this, the way you put it makes perfect sense. On my site I always used a descriptive link because I know as a reader I would never click on a link that did’t tell me where I was going. Why waste the readers time.
Nodin’s Nests last blog post.."Hey Laverne "!
I tend to mix and match my linking strategies.
Sometimes I’ll use two links like so:
*Click HERE* to learn more about *making money with the eBay affiliate program*
The two links go within the asterisks. That way, I help my newbie users as well as my SEO.
Enjoy,
Barbara
@ Barbara Ling:
Barbara, I think you make a good point. Because ‘Click Here’ is useless for SEO, but it IS useful if you are implicitly trying to get someone to take that clicking action. By telling them exactly what to do, using “Click Here” is another tool to influence the brain to make that click.
I can only see this being useful in eCommerce or hardcore Lead Generation, in which everything you do is working to funnel that visitor to a sale, while minimizing any other distractions.
It can be useful to trigger the brain to respond, as I briefly covered at the end of the post. Yet it’s still greatly overused on sites.
I’ve seen other text links than ‘click here’ be more effective. For instance, adding ‘read more’ to an article will often have a much higher click-through rate than ‘click here.’ So it depends on the usage.
My thought in this post is to raise the idea of not using it unless there’s a specific, targeted purpose.
This is a timely post for me because I was just considering this question for a post I wrote yesterday.
I felt like having “here” as the link was kind of junk-mail-y (that’s not a word, I know) so I won’t do it again. It isn’t any more work to have a link be descriptive, and your point about SEO makes total sense.
Ann at One Bag Nations last blog post..Reducing Email Clutter
Great post, at one time I had hoped to buy the domain name “clickhere.com” but alas, it was taken, of course.
I read, and it looks like it still is, that the top site when searched for the phrase “click here” was Adobe, with 1.68 Billion results. That’s cause of all those (to get Adobe reader, “click here”) phrases on thousands of sites, so the SEO benefit can be seen there.
You just need to be versatile, and long tailed if you’re wanting links pointing back that don’t seem “cookie cutter” methods.
Hmm, good point, and something I never considered. As always, Dawud, thanks for the useful advice!
Great points!! Thanks!
JessicaAPISSs last blog post..Silver Spring restaurants featured in Washingtontonian’s 100 Best Bargain Eats
Back when I took my first web class, they told us never to use the Click Here. So did every HTML book I’ve ever read.
That said, my marketing classes suggested it wasn’t a bad idea. It’s an easy (if cheap and overused) way to give a Call to Action.
Still, I’ve found it more effective to combine the two princiaples. Make your link the Call but use real words. For example:
“Want more? *Check out the archives*.”
“To keep updated, *sign up for the RSS Feed*”
“You can always *check the current show* from the tab at the top.”