The internet’s been around a while now, and I think it’s safe to say people know how hyperlinks work. You see underlined text, you click it, and it takes you to a new page. So why do people still use redundant ‘click here’ links? No shit, dipstick!
The problem is that those links only work within the context of the page, and not outside of it. Search engines like Google keep track of the link text as well as the text on the linked page. The logic here is that the link text is usually relevant to its destination, and thus provides appropriate keywords for the page. ‘Click here’ as link text is worthless because it doesn’t describe what it’s linking to at all. It’s also wrong because you don’t necessarily need your mouse to open the link. Blind people, for example, can’t reliably click on links. They have their screen readers open them.
Google click here and you get links to download Adobe Acrobat, Quicktime, Netscape, and Internet Explorer. 95% of these links probably look like this.
To download Firefox click here.
There’s plenty of description right next to the link. Just write ‘download Firefox’, and make that the link! You write less, and make the link descriptive, all at the same time. You add weight to the link destination in a search engine by doing so, and make the link more salient when it’s by itself.
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