Center for Teaching & Learning: Perspectives on Teaching & Learning

Stop "Clicking Here and Learning More": Improve Your Course Usability

Which of the two sentences below do you prefer?

1. The article, "Writing Hyperlinks: Salient, Descriptive, Start with Keyword", is a research-based argument on why you should stop using the phrase “click here” when linking external content in your course.

2. Click here to read “Writing Hyperlinks: Salient, Descriptive, Start with Keyword”, a research-based discussion of why you should stop using the phrase “click here” when linking external content in your course.

Did you know that your students are more likely to read the article linked in sentence A?

Using eyetracking and user interface studies, the article "Writing Hyperlinks: Salient, Descriptive, Start with Keyword" explains how our web page reading is based on scanning rather than reading the entire page. We are seeking salient information and trying to determine the value of the page content initially. The “click here” labeled links don’t provide the reader with sufficient information to make a decision of its utility and obscures the purpose of the link. It is also unclear for those who are visually-impaired and use a screen reader. The solution? It’s easy. Use salient, descriptive keywords!

Is the “learn more” or “read more” link text a better solution? It’s not the best as explained in “Learn More” Links: You Can Do Better”.  Instead, follow one of these recommended options:

1. Use keywords that describe the link’s destination.
2. Retain the Learn More format and add descriptive words.
3. Convert the preceding paragraph heading into the only link.

Sherwin, K. (2015, December 13). “Learn more” links: You can do better. Retrieved from https://www.nngroup.com/articles/learn-more-links/.

Writing hyperlinks: Salient, descriptive, start with keyword. (2014, March 9). Retrieved from https://www.nngroup.com/articles/writing-links/