Why "click here" is bad

Why "Click here" is bad linking practice (by Jukka Korpela)

• "Click here" just looks stupid.
• "Click here" looks especially stupid when printed on paper.
• "Click here" is useless in a list of links or when in "links reading" mode, or whenever a link text is considered as isolated from its textual and visual context.
• "Click here" is bad food for search engines. If you say "For information on Unitarianism, click here", search engines won't know that your document contains a link to a document about Unitarianism. Some important search engines use the link text in estimating the relevance of a link. Using descriptive link texts thus helps users in finding documents they're interested in, potentially including your document due to a link text with some key word.
• There's usually a fairly simple way to do things better. Instead of the text "For information on Unitarianism, click here", you could simply type "About Unitarianism".
• "Click here" is device-dependent. There are several ways to follow a link, with or without a mouse. Users probably recognize what you mean, but you are still conveying the message that you think in a device-dependent way.

Describing links correctly

Bad

Good

Click here for information about Unitarianism You can access information on Unitarianism by clicking here More information on Unitarianism is here More information on Unitarianism is available by following this link More information on Unitarianism is available by following this link Follow this link for more information on Unitarianism www.unitarian.org.uk/ To book a place on this course click here

About Unitarianism More information about Unitarianism Find out more about Unitarianism There have been a lot of news items about Unitarianism recently Book a place on this course