{"id":11,"date":"2026-05-11T14:32:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T04:32:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chidgey.com.au\/?p=11"},"modified":"2026-05-11T14:55:35","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T04:55:35","slug":"dont-click-here-to-find-out-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chidgey.com.au\/?p=11","title":{"rendered":"Don&#8217;t click here to find out more"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\">When you&#8217;re writing content for your web pages, usability may not always be your first concern \u2014 but it should be! There\u2019s no better example of this than the continued use of \u201cclick here\u201d and &#8220;find out more&#8221; in link text. Here are five reasons why you should avoid using these generic calls to action when writing the links in your content. <!-- \/wp:post-content --><\/blockquote>\r\n<!-- \/wp:quote -->\r\n\r\n<!-- wp:heading {\"level\":3} -->\r\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>1. It\u2019s not informative<\/strong><\/h3>\r\n<!-- \/wp:heading -->\r\n\r\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\r\n<p>It\u2019s an established fact that most people don\u2019t really read the content of a website \u2013 they scan it. This applies to almost all written content on the web, and people tend to do it for a number of reasons, such as:<\/p>\r\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\r\n\r\n<!-- wp:list -->\r\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><!-- wp:list-item -->\r\n<li>They are too busy to read something fully<\/li>\r\n<!-- \/wp:list-item -->\r\n\r\n<!-- wp:list-item -->\r\n<li>They are looking for a specific piece of information, and once they find it they want to move on<\/li>\r\n<!-- \/wp:list-item -->\r\n\r\n<!-- wp:list-item -->\r\n<li>There\u2019s a lot of information out there that is competing for their attention<\/li>\r\n<!-- \/wp:list-item -->\r\n\r\n<!-- wp:list-item -->\r\n<li>They might have other issues that make it harder for them to read content online, such as screen resolution, screen glare, tiny font sizes, contrast, etc.<\/li>\r\n<!-- \/wp:list-item --><\/ul>\r\n<!-- \/wp:list -->\r\n\r\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\r\n<p>When someone writes content for a website, they have to keep in mind that it\u2019s probably not going tobe read except by those who have an inherent interest in doing so.<\/p>\r\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\r\n\r\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\r\n<p>Most people are going to scan it instead, and when they do, certain things will jump out at them \u2013 links being one of them. Of course, that will depend on whether the web designer\u00a0styled the links properly by making them underlined and a different colour from the surrounding text.<\/p>\r\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\r\n\r\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\r\n<p>Yes, people scanning content will still see your link even if it says \u201cclick here\u201d. But using \u201cclick here\u201d as the link text doesn\u2019t take that next step of telling them where the link is going to as they scan over it quickly.<\/p>\r\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\r\n\r\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\r\n<p>The bottom line is that people like to \u2013 and want to \u2013 know where a link from your website is going to lead them. Using the words \u201cclick here\u201d just doesn\u2019t do that for them, and here\u2019s a good example:<\/p>\r\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\r\n\r\n<!-- wp:list -->\r\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><!-- wp:list-item -->\r\n<li>Bad\u00a0\u2013 If you want to learn more about this,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/staff.mq.edu.au\/support\/marketing-and-communications\/website-guides-and-resources\/squiz-newsletter\/news\/news\/dont-click-here-to-find-out-more\">click here<\/a>\u00a0to read this article from the Sydney Morning Herald<\/li>\r\n<!-- \/wp:list-item -->\r\n\r\n<!-- wp:list-item -->\r\n<li>Good\u00a0\u2013 Learn more about this topic by reading\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/staff.mq.edu.au\/support\/marketing-and-communications\/website-guides-and-resources\/squiz-newsletter\/news\/news\/dont-click-here-to-find-out-more\">this article in the Sydney Morning Herald<\/a><\/li>\r\n<!-- \/wp:list-item --><\/ul>\r\n<!-- \/wp:list -->\r\n\r\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\r\n<p>The second one tells people at a quick glance not only that there is a link, but that it\u2019s to an article on the Sydney Morning Herald website. What does \u201cclick here\u201d tell you? Only that a link is there for them to click on.<\/p>\r\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\r\n\r\n<!-- wp:heading {\"level\":3} -->\r\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">2. It\u2019s not action-oriented<\/h3>\r\n<!-- \/wp:heading -->\r\n\r\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\r\n<p>Most websites want people to take some action as a result pf their visit. People respond to action words, so keep this in mind by writing link text that encourages visitors to take the desired action. Here\u2019s an example:<\/p>\r\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\r\n\r\n<!-- wp:list -->\r\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><!-- wp:list-item -->\r\n<li>Bad\u00a0\u2013 Enjoy what you see?\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/staff.mq.edu.au\/support\/marketing-and-communications\/website-guides-and-resources\/squiz-newsletter\/news\/news\/dont-click-here-to-find-out-more\">Click here<\/a>\u00a0to subscribe to our blog for free updates!<\/li>\r\n<!-- \/wp:list-item -->\r\n\r\n<!-- wp:list-item -->\r\n<li>Good\u00a0\u2013 Enjoy what you see?\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/staff.mq.edu.au\/support\/marketing-and-communications\/website-guides-and-resources\/squiz-newsletter\/news\/news\/dont-click-here-to-find-out-more\">Subscribe to our blog<\/a>\u00a0for free updates!<\/li>\r\n<!-- \/wp:list-item --><\/ul>\r\n<!-- \/wp:list -->\r\n\r\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\r\n<p>Notice the difference? The second one has the desired action contained within the actual link text, which will be much more obvious when someone is scanning the content quickly. Using \u201cclick here\u201d doesn\u2019t convey that desired action \u2013 again, it only tells them that a link is there for them to click.<\/p>\r\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\r\n\r\n<!-- wp:heading {\"level\":3} -->\r\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">3. It\u2019s not SEO-friendly<\/h3>\r\n<!-- \/wp:heading -->\r\n\r\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\r\n<p>Search engines such as Google use the strength of your links in their algorithm when they determine your placement in search engine results. While the number of links (both internal and external) on your website is important, how those links are worded can be just as important. Here\u2019s an example:<\/p>\r\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\r\n\r\n<!-- wp:list -->\r\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><!-- wp:list-item -->\r\n<li>Bad\u00a0\u2013\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/staff.mq.edu.au\/support\/marketing-and-communications\/website-guides-and-resources\/squiz-newsletter\">Click here<\/a>\u00a0to read more articles from the Group Marketing Digital team<\/li>\r\n<!-- \/wp:list-item -->\r\n\r\n<!-- wp:list-item -->\r\n<li>Good\u00a0\u2013 Read more\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/staff.mq.edu.au\/support\/marketing-and-communications\/website-guides-and-resources\/squiz-newsletter\">articles from the Group Marketing Digital team<\/a><\/li>\r\n<!-- \/wp:list-item --><\/ul>\r\n<!-- \/wp:list -->\r\n\r\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\r\n<p>The second one is the much-more friendly link. When you use \u201cclick here\u201d as your link text, all that you\u2019re doing is letting the search engines know that your content contains a link. If you want to also help them estimate how relevant that link is though, start using keywords in the link text instead.<\/p>\r\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\r\n\r\n<!-- wp:heading {\"level\":3} -->\r\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">4. It&#8217;s not accessible<\/h3>\r\n<!-- \/wp:heading -->\r\n\r\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\r\n<p>People with visual impairments can&#8217;t always see the link: they rely on their screen readers to tell them what will happen when the link is clicked. If the link just says &#8220;click here&#8221; or &#8220;find out more&#8221;, they have no idea of knowing what will happen once the link is clicked. In addition, if there are several &#8220;click here&#8221; links on a single web pages, it can be extremely confusing for person with a visual impairment who is trying to scan the page for links.<\/p>\r\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\r\n\r\n<!-- wp:heading {\"level\":3} -->\r\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">5. It\u2019s not modern<\/h3>\r\n<!-- \/wp:heading -->\r\n\r\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\r\n<p>During the early days of the Internet, people defended the use of \u201cclick here\u201d on the grounds that if it weren\u2019t used, most people wouldn\u2019t know what to do when they came across a link. Content writers came up with it as a solution that gave users the hint of what action they were supposed to take \u2013 literally, click here.<\/p>\r\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\r\n\r\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\r\n<p>Needless to say, that\u2019s drastically changed as more and more people have become familiar with websites in recent years. If you continue to use \u201cclick here\u201d in your content, you can give your visitors bad impressions that you don\u2019t want them to have, such as:<\/p>\r\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\r\n\r\n<!-- wp:list -->\r\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><!-- wp:list-item -->\r\n<li>That you don\u2019t respect their intelligence enough to know what a link is<\/li>\r\n<!-- \/wp:list-item -->\r\n\r\n<!-- wp:list-item -->\r\n<li>That your website or the content on it hasn\u2019t been updated in years<\/li>\r\n<!-- \/wp:list-item --><\/ul>\r\n<!-- \/wp:list -->\r\n\r\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\r\n<p>It&#8217;s important to make a positive impression through your website, and most people nowadays think that websites that still use \u201cclick here\u201d are just plain old-fashioned. This is definitely not the impression that we want our website to convey to our users.<\/p>\r\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\r\n\r\n<!-- wp:heading -->\r\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">References<\/h2>\r\n<!-- \/wp:heading -->\r\n\r\n<!-- wp:list -->\r\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><!-- wp:list-item -->\r\n<li>Stephanie Leary &#8211;\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/stephanieleary.com\/2015\/05\/why-click-here-is-a-terrible-link-and-what-to-write-instead\/\">Why click here is a terrible link and what to write instead.<\/a><\/li>\r\n<!-- \/wp:list-item -->\r\n\r\n<!-- wp:list-item -->\r\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nngroup.com\/articles\/writing-links\">Writing Hyperlinks<\/a>, from the Nielsen Norman Group<\/li>\r\n<!-- \/wp:list-item -->\r\n\r\n<!-- wp:list-item -->\r\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/QA\/Tips\/noClickHere\">W3C Quality Assurance team on \u201cclick here\u201d<\/a><\/li>\r\n<!-- \/wp:list-item -->\r\n\r\n<!-- wp:list-item -->\r\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.smashingmagazine.com\/2012\/06\/20\/links-should-never-say-click-here\">Smashing Magazine article on \u201cclick here\u201d<\/a><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When you&#8217;re writing content for your web pages, usability may not always be your first concern \u2014 but it should be! There\u2019s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-accessibility"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chidgey.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chidgey.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chidgey.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chidgey.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chidgey.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/chidgey.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15,"href":"https:\/\/chidgey.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11\/revisions\/15"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chidgey.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chidgey.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chidgey.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}