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]
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.
This is exactly the sort of article that reminds me of how full of themselves SO MANY people in web design are. It's why I never take anything any "strong" so-called UI/UX expert ideas or notions or whatever particularly seriously, and instead actually listen to the client (not what they say they want, but what goals they actually have)
In this case, the client is my 70ish dad and the people he interacts with for his project. Last thing I'm going to do is be like "no, it's not 1995, people don't need 'click here' this anymore."
People who write articles like this keep people like me in business.
Google developer style agrees, and encourages the following alternatives instead:
- Make the link text match the exact text of the title or heading that you're referencing.
EX: For more information, see [Load balancing and scaling].
- Write a description of the destination page to use as the link text, capitalized as if it's part of the sentence.
EX: You can use Cloud Scheduler and Cloud Functions to manage [task scheduling on Compute Engine].
Norman Nielsen Group makes similar arguments against "learn more" (and suggested that "learn more" is the new "click here"): https://www.nngroup.com/articles/learn-more-links/
> But people won't know where to click? > It's not 1995.
I've seen lots, lots of people living in 1995 these days then.
On the other hand:
"Click here" screams "this is a link". It is not as obvious a call to click upon as a big shiny button, aching to be pressed, but it is more obvious than a few words that are in a harder-to-read color and underlined.
"You can go to _your_account_" is a much smoother sentence than "To change your account, click _here_". But is that always what you want? Do you want all your links to be smoothly integrated into the body text? Sometimes you do! Sometimes you don't.
Accessibility and universal design may be another important factor. I’ve recall that usage of “click here” makes it harder for screen reader users to tell what link they are trying to click on. I haven’t caught up with the tech in awhile, but such a small change/effort on my part has been ingrained into my link making!
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 would argue you can't win either way...
If you use real link, your training people to trust what the text says is actually where you're going to go..
By making people do extra work to see where click here goes you might actually be training to protect themselves... Of course that doesn't work when Outlook goes and wraps the whole thing in a safety URL you can't see past... Or with shorteners.. but in all of those cases, I know to be more cautious.
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.
Even worse is to do both, e.g. click here to [reset your password]
In Win98SE days, I setup a PC for my parents to use. It was their first computer, and I personalized it the way I setup mine: enable view extensions and path bar in Explorer, remove the Go button in IE, and so on.
Then I got a call from my Mom: "I typed in the web address, now what do I do?"
To me, it was obvious: hit Enter. But MS had done their A/B testing, and that Go button was for the beginning user.
For the OP to assume that everyone is as adept as they are is folly. As another user lamented, sometimes you have to rub the user's nose in it for them to know they can click something.
At this point I'm just happy if hyperlinks are a different color
Just yesterday I had an instance of a user being confused by a link that would probably have made TFA's author happy. This isn't the first user to be confused by these supposedly-clearer links. I'm going to be adding a 'Click Here' text very shortly.
Ew. The examples in the 'Real Examples' look terrible, especially the last two. You usually shouldn't put links in the middle of a text. If you have a link and a description, rather use
description : >Click here<
Some exceptions are hypertext heavy documents, like wikipedia, or a dictionary. But if you want to point somewhere, refer something, or provide an option to an action, you shouldn't put that in the middle of a sentence or in the middle of a line. Put it at the end.
> 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 titles instead of imperative commands. I just have to watch my parents try to navigate a web site to feel deep humility about how I think people use the web. They got stuck in 1995 I guess.
This kind of advice should come with A/B testing on actual users. I think we would all facepalm at the results.
From the examples, I don't think it's good to bury the link in the content text either, at least some of the "click here" at the paragraph end is very clear and stand out.
However, the alternatives suggested are harder to translate.
The need for the link text to say the action or name of destination of the link, and to grammatically fit within the sentence, makes translation tricky.
Poorly translated sites are hard to use for the majority of the world for whom English is not a first language, and overall this effect might outweigh the benefits of descriptive link text.
> But people won't know where to click? It's not 1995.
In 199x it was easier to tell were to click on a web site - hyperlinks were underlined and usually blue. On many modern sites links are de-emphasized; different sites using very different styles doesn't make it easier.
Missing a great source of humour to have the Hacker News headline link "click here"
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.
Idk why, but I prefer click here version
I dunno, seems pretty clear to me and it’s a super common approach.
Is this science or just kind of a style question?
Nice. Anyone have a list of these single issue PSA static sites?
But using old 90s ux is so satisfying
[dead]
While I agree with the authors sentiment and do try not to include 'click here' links in any of the content I'm asked to post. I disagree with his assertion that it's confusing and slows people down.
Having been on the Internet almost daily since the late 90's. I can say with some degree of certainty that the ambitiousness of 'click here' links on the Internet has more or less trained people to look for them.
In the authors example
Jcrew email receipt
For additional order details, please click here to go to your account.
For additional order details, go to your account.
Not only do I immediately understand 'click here' to go to my account, but 'click here' conveys that the link will deep link me directly to the referenced section or pertinent information that the sentence is discussing.
Alternately a 'your account' link, does not convey this message. It tells me I am going to a general account management interface, and will then need to browse around to find the information or section referenced by the sentence.
I believe 'click here' links have their place and convey the very specific message that they should deep link someone directly to the content referenced in the link and not just to a site that contains the referenced content somewhere on the page.