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[w3.org...]
I have been trying to update my site but am getting a lot of resistance from my marketing people (they come from a print background).
We used to say:
Buy a red widget, get a green widget at 50% off, click here for details.
or
Buy a red widget, and finance it for x years, click here for more information.
They don't see the need to change, and liked my suggestions even less ...
Buy a red widget, get a green widget at 50% off. See the details.
Buy a red widget and finance it for x years. See more information about this offer.
So is everyone still using click here? Anyone have any suggestions?
Link text and words surrounding the link text are of importance when structuring your page content. As the tip implies, click here provides no justice from a usability standpoint.
You want to make sure that your primary phrase for the reason to click here is utilized in the link text. You also want to surround that link text with a call to action that offers a short description of what the visitor will find when they click here.
I am a big Click Here thinger . . . Click Here to Enlarge . . . Click Here to Order . . . no one has complained that I'm pandering.
A friend who manages an intranet took a couple of HTML courses and sweetly said to me over dinner one night, "You know that 'Click Here' thing is thought of as unprofessional . . ."
I'm dealing with the General Public and I get the feeling sometimes that they are so overwhelmed by the entire internet experience, that if I say "Click Here", well, they can understand that and respond.
Definitely, it's a category issue.
What I thought might be a link to the home page turned out to be a link to email.
I spend hours a day surfing, if I had trouble with this navigation, what about a casual visitor? My guess, they are gone fast.
All that said, I do use click here in some places, adjacent to a clear reason to click. In other areas, probably most, I don't use the click here thing, but in my opinion, the concept that "clicking" on the text will take you somewhere, and why has to be crystal clear. And the fact that the text or image is a clickable link needs to be equally clear.
I disagree strongly that this is a negative thing! Divulging the mechanics, letting people know clearly what to do next, makes a page more usable, especially for newbies.
Graywolf, I would say to trust your marketing people on this one. In my work, on product sales pages (affiliate referral pages, actually), link phrases such as "Click Here for More Info" or "Click Here to Purchase This Widget from WidgetWorld" send people through to the merchant more effectively than anything else I've tested.
On the downside, a "Click Here" link is less informative for someone surfing with an audible browser reader, and there's no anchor text SEO advantage for the site you're linking to.
Good link text should not be overly general; don't use "click here." Not only is this phrase device-dependent (it implies a pointing device) it says nothing about what is to be found if the link if followed.
W3C - HTML Techniques for Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 - 6.1 Link Text [w3.org]
P.S. This is where the a title attribute comes into play and can be extremely beneficial for the visitor experience.
Pageoneresults, the page you linked to and quoted from is over 2 years old (at least it was created on 6 Nov 2000 - I didnt see any update dates for ammendments - i didnt look very hard though). It's not exactly "fresh" and representative of today's market! ;)
Using text links has accessibility and SEO benefits, so it is easy enough to encorporate the two.
eg, why have:
Want blue widgets? Then <link>click here</link>
When you can have:
<link> Click here for more information about blue widgets</link>
I think the latter is much more descriptive for the user and is perfectly acceptable.
There was a time when the phrase "click here" could be misunderstood by those who were new to the web. But today i think that 99% of new surfers will be getting help from a friend / family member / teacher / tutor / member of staff in Internet cafe / person sitting next to them to get to grips with the basics of surfing.
I think its safe to assume that most people know what "click here" is refering to.
Gray wolf:
I do like your suggestions though! :)
Perhaps you could do a standard "more details" graphic to have throughout your site to be used as needed instead of link text?
If you need to use a text link for whatever reason, I think the main factor to consider is not how it is worded, but the consistency of format and naviagtion throughout your site as a whole.
As long as the "more details" link is in the same place in the same format for every product, your users will quickly begin to use it as habit.
My 2c anyway! :)
MG
I dont think so.....I though it was to do with accessibility / sales conversions....? :)
There hasnt been much mention of the big G in this thread.
MG
Personally, I think that regular web users know where to click if a link is underlined or otherwise clearly marked. And there are not that many new users any more, as almost everybody who is going to use the web somewhen is there by now, at least in western countries.
I've heard this before and I still don't think its right- my mother first got online around 6 months ago and I know that she has friends who she is now trying to convert to the joys of email etc...
As for click here- I think it works really well. If you're worried about usability you can always put titles on your links. In the B to C world you have to go with the lowest common denominator and keep it very simple IMO.
I have mixed feelings about the call to action thing. In some cases I think its appropriate to assume that your surfer can't locate his posterior with both hands, and use "Click here!" or some similar call-to-action type phrase. I would try to avoid using it to link to pages that I actually want to rank well though
Slightly OT, but try searching your favourite SE using the string "click here".
Just went to google and checked that. Funny enough, but for most of them (like Adobe, Macromedia,...), it is probably more because of link text, like "Click here to download...".
Yeh definitely! :)
"Click here" should really just take the user to more information about the page they are on that is outwith the main navigation of the site.
MG
Exactly. The power of the incoming link text at work. If you use "click here" to link to a page you want surfers to see, you are competing against every webmaster who ever used "<a>Click here</a> to download..." on a page. The link: search for Acrobat turned up over 280,000 links in Google, and a shade over 3.6 million links using link.all: at ATW. If you think you can beat that.... :)
Not only is this phrase device-dependent (it implies a pointing device) it says nothing about what is to be found if the link if followed.
<link>Click here for more information about blue widgets</link>
In the above example, you have described to the visitor what is to be found when clicking the link. I personally have no issues with your example of describing the link. I'd probably go one step further and compact the link to read...
Click here for more <link>information about blue widgets</link>.
My goal is to make that link as descriptive as possible while utilizing the key phrase in the link text. I will then copy that entire sentence, including the Click here for more and add it to the a title attribute so I end up with this...
Click here for more<a title="Click here for more information on blue widgets." href="/blue-widgets.htm">information on blue widgets</a>.
I keep punctuation out of my links whenever possible. Just a habit that has followed me over the years.
I think it is of great benefit to your visitors to clearly label your links so that they know where they are going.
Even though the link above is over 2 years old, it is still applicable today. Much of what is explained at the W3C still applies today and probably will for quite some time.
The "click here" has improved the percentage of page visitors who click on the link where I added it.
In fact, I went back to some banners that are currently running and put "click here" back on them as well.
I've measured that clear standout hover behaviors (and link styles in general) also help a lot. But from what I can see, "Click Here" still has benefits unless you're dealing with only a web-savvy audience.
[edited by: tedster at 6:08 pm (utc) on Feb. 4, 2003]
vs
Click here for more <link>information about blue widgets</link>.
Maybe I'm too picky, but in the second example the visitor is being told to "Click here" when in reality they need to click on "information about blue widgets" to follow the link.
I think it's best not to use the words "click here" unless they are part of the link.
On the other hand, I've got a lot to learn........... so maybe I'm wrong.
I even have a line of different colored and highlighted text on every page with thumnail images that says "click on the images for more detail and prices". Checking my logs, both of these visitors were on my site for over 20 minutes and completely missed that string and evidently never clicked a descriptive text link or thumbnail.
Makes you wonder if your audience needs flashing animation - shiver me timbers!
On the other hand, I've got a lot to learn, so maybe I'm wrong.
I'm not too sure there is a right or wrong in this scenario. Based on other responses and real world testing, audience has an influence on how you label your links.
My example above was to minimize the amount of link text and target my main keyword phrase. Since the words are so close together, I'm assuming that the user understands the call to action. But, you raise a valid point. Maybe if I just shortened it to...
<link>More information on Blue Widgets</link>.
It would be more specific without using the Click Here call to action. I think the tip from the W3C implied that using just Click Here without any other definitive information surrounding the link was not good practice.
I'll be honest and tell you that I have a few clients who were adamant about using the Click Here links and I convinced them to at least let me add a little more information to the link.
<link>Click here for more information on Blue Widgets</link>
As Marketing Man aka JOAT, described above. It's informative, there is a call to action and it lets the visitor know where they are going.
