Comments on: Don’t say ‘click here’ on link text

By: Matthijs

Matthijs — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 09:35:22 +0000

Thanks for the advice, I must admit that I immediatly started scanning my own design for any of these usability errors.

By: David Hamill

David Hamill — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 07:57:32 +0000

Hi Marc, thanks for the comment. I’m sorry that you find it so difficult to take this advice. After all, it is good advice.

By alt attributes, I take it you actually mean title attributes. Alt attributes are used for elements like images. The text in an alt attribute is used for when the element itself is not available (because it hasn’t loaded or it can’t be seen by the user). The title attribute on the other hand is used on anchor tags to provide a little more information about where the link goes. In a perfect world you would never need to use a title attribute on a link. This is because the link text itself would be descriptive enough.

However I take your point, there are some links on my site that might benefit from a title attribute. I’ll make a point of going through it and adding them where they would be helpful. Thanks for the feedback.

By: Marc Brooks

Marc Brooks — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 04:28:52 +0000

I find it hard to take advice on anchors from someone who doesn’t bother to put alt attributes on them that describe where the link goes…

By: ronÃ©/di/kristu

ronÃ©/di/kristu — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 12:59:41 +0000

Click here is a promise that often isn’t backed up. I kinda feel cheated if the promise turns out to be a misleading offer or content.

In contrast “shy links” – I think I coined a sexy term: a gentle click here link that doesn’t appear like a click here link – feel more like a recommendation and not an offer that you might regret.

So maybe from that point of view it is save to say that “cold linking” (mash up consisting of “click here” and “cold call”) deserves the boot.

PS: shy linking/cold linking – I already love these terms.

By: Karen

Karen — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 15:56:01 +0000

I had to tweet about this article today.
I notice the problem developing with small businesses who try to do their website on their own (“have blog, will make website” and “no money”). They have seen “click here” for years, so they think that is what they should do. It will take lots of patience to weed out these problems. Now, thanks to you, we can now just point offenders to this article.

By: David Hamill

David Hamill — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 16:03:42 +0000

Fair enough, it was worth a try.

By: Yves

Yves — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 07:48:47 +0000

Hm, I don’t like the German cooking book style… it’s “Man nehme 3 Eier” which translates to something like “You take 3 eggs”, or more explicitly “One takes 3 eggs.” Strange wording they have there… That style is sometimes used for fun in other contexts just to indicate a recipe/steps to do.

As for the imperative form, I’m very much used to and would like to compare it with menu commands in common applications. Take “edit/copy/paste” for example: It’s “Bearbeiten/Kopieren/EinfÃ¼gen” – all infinitive forms. In English you can’t tell because it’s the same. “Sehen Sie alle 25 Fotos (an)” sounds strange to my ears. Whereas “Registrieren Sie sich jetzt!” (“Register now!”; notice the exclamation mark) fits perfectly into advertisement talk.

By: David Hamill

David Hamill — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 09:26:21 +0000

Fantastic question Yves! Personally my knowledge of German isn’t good enough to have tested with German users. However I’ll try to answer your question. There are 2 things to consider here. What you’re talking about appears to be a call to action. This takes the imperative form in English and French i.e “Find a friend”, “Trouvez un ami”. In German you should use the equivalent for a call to action.

Look in a German cook book. How does it phrase the instructions? In an English cook book it would have numbered instructions, “Mix the sauce together” for example. I would suggest following whatever structure you see there. Your call to action is after all an instruction.

But not all links need to be a call to action. The example you give “Alle 25 Fotos in dieser Sammlung anzeigen” is still frontloaded with important information. “Alle 25 Fotos” makes it clear what the link is for at the very start of the link. So is quicker to scan than if “anzeigen” was at the front. In any case I would opt for a verb that described what the user wanted to do. This would be the German equvalents for “See” of “View”. But that’s a minor point.

By: Yves

Yves — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 08:14:41 +0000

You write “Good link text is front-loaded, so the most important words are at the front.” I can well imagine that a link of “Show all 25 photos from this collection” is easy to see as it begins with “show” which is something the user wants to do. But this is in English and probably also French. In German for example it would be “Alle 25 Fotos in dieser Sammlung anzeigen”. (anzeigen = engl. show; also it’s infinitive form, not imperative.) Here, the action word comes at the very end. This is common in the German language. Do you think it’s a problem or are German users maybe used to find those trigger words near the end of the link text? Or does it not matter for such short link texts?

By: Andy Fox

Andy Fox — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 13:09:14 +0000

Good point and this was what was going through my mind when taking the decision. The site is a training tool where people are specifically pointed to log on and use for their job so they wouldn’t go through any other hyperlinks to get there.

It is an exception!