- Click here
"Click here" is a
verb phrase that may be used as theanchor text of ahyperlink on aweb page . TheWorld Wide Web Consortium , through its "Quality Tips for Webmasters", advises web designers to avoid using "click here" for this purpose. [http://www.w3.org/QA/Tips/noClickHere World Wide Web Consortium QA Tips, contributed Sep 2001 by Aaron Swartz] ]Jakob Nielsen, a leading
web usability pundit, says, "Don't use 'click here' or other non-descriptive link text." [ [http://www.useit.com/alertbox/designmistakes.html Jakob Nielsen's AlertBox: October 3, 2005: Top Ten Web Design Mistakes of 2005] ] According to web programmer Jutta Denenger, "If you owned a shop, you'd write 'Welcome' on the door, not 'Open this door to enter the shop.'" [ [http://www.cs.tu-berlin.de/~jutta/ht/writing/words.html What is good hypertext writing?, Appendix: Dangerous Words, Jutta Denenger July 1998] ]earch indexing
Search engines use anchor text to index the content of a linked-to site. For example, a site which is linked with the anchor text "Miserable failure " by many other sites may appear towards the top of searches for "miserable failure". [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3298443.stm BBC NEWS | Americas | 'Miserable failure' links to Bush] ] Some bloggers have speculated that using "click here" in lieu of a descriptive name is poorsearch engine optimization practice. [ [http://www.solosignal.com/seo-tip-please-dont-click-here Solo Signal, "SEO Tip: Please Don’t Click Here"] ] [ [http://fthorsen.realtyblogging.com/default.asp?item=222176 Frances Thorsten, Realty Blogging, "SEO Tip of the Day -- No More 'Click Here' !!!"] ]Accessibility and device dependence
Screen readers , used by thevisually impaired , can read out only the hyperlinks on the page as a quick method of navigation. Usability and accessibility firm Webcredible advises to avoid non-descriptive link text such as "click here" at all costs, as it makes no sense whatsoever out of context. [ [http://www.out-law.com/page-5931 Improving usability for screen reader users, OUT-LAW News, 21/07/2005] ]In addition, mobile phones and other devices without a mouse similarly have no clicking when a link is selected with the keypad. With increasing numbers of
touchscreen devices, a related phrase now emerging is "tap here".Fact|date=June 2008Users may want to print web pages for reference. "Click here" is inapplicable on the printed page. For this reason,
Tim Berners-Lee , the inventor of the Web, advises web designers to try to avoid references in the text to online aspects. [ [http://www.w3.org/Provider/Style/Printable.html Style Guide for online hypertext, Tim Berners-Lee 1992-1998] .]ee also
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