How Do You Link?
This question is directed to those of you who blog, or really, to those of you who create online content. It doesn’t have to be a blog, just something that requires linking stuff. In the early days of the Internet, when this whole thing was new, you had to tell people how to get to the next place. Usually you would use a phrase like ‘click here‘ or ‘click this for the download to begin’.
But these days, a lot of people will tell you that is unnecessary. People know how to click something. They don’t need to be told. For example, say you were linking to an IMDB entry on the movie ‘Spaceballs’. You could say click here for the ‘Spaceballs’ movie information or you could just put ‘Spaceballs’ and make the title clickable.
Which do you prefer when you create content? Share it in the comments!
September 23rd, 2010 at 9:12 am
Sometimes in people’s posts, their font and settings don’t always have it being an identifying obvious link. It could be a different color than blue and not always underlined. Sure we don’t need to be told to click here all the time, just like we don’t need to be told to put food in our mouth to chew it. But sometimes the links are not as obvious. And if you’re pimping something for someone, you want to make sure they know to click it or die..
September 23rd, 2010 at 9:47 am
Hmm, I’d say considering most links are highlighted in a different color AND underlined, that should be enough indication of location to click through. I don’t think you have to spell it out like you did before. I also understand the motivation for this post
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Patrick D. Reply:
September 23rd, 2010 at 11:59 am
September 23rd, 2010 at 11:26 am
I would be harraunged by my peers if i wrote out “CLICK HERE TO SEE SPACEBALLS INFORMATION” Not to mention that you may actually loose readers if a writer is that blatant.
Tell them to get with the times – an obvious link (different color, underlined, maybe even a hover over preview) is more than sufficient.
September 23rd, 2010 at 5:28 pm
I’m always pro-Spaceballs. Any Mel Brooks, really.
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Patrick D. Reply:
September 24th, 2010 at 10:37 am
Well, ‘Blazing Saddles’ is the yardstick that every comedy movie is judged against, in my opinion.
September 23rd, 2010 at 10:56 pm
There are 2 things to consider when making a hyperlink.
First, I would not insult the intelligence my reader with “Click here..”. Actual phrase of interest should become highlighted – in your case I would use just “SPACEBALLS INFORMATION”.
Second – make sure that your link actually looks like one: different color and underscored.
That how it was designed initially and still is one of the corner stones of the Internet.
Patrick D. Reply:
September 24th, 2010 at 10:40 am
Well, my experience working with older people and people who are not tech-savvy (read that as ‘regular people’) is that sometimes, it’s not that obvious what the link is. As to your second point, most browsers allow you to override page settings, so you may not be able to control the color.
I appreciate you taking the time to read and comment. Thanks.
September 26th, 2010 at 7:23 pm
Patrick,
You are making a good point indicating the complexity of the Internet technologies, lack of standards and virtual failure to serve EVERY website Visitor.
(In fact eternal compliance with standard would not have allowed the Internet to develop so fast.)
In some cases websites go with non-standard way of linking. Those webmasters justify such solutions with innovation, following bigger websites etc.
I still think that using “standard” approach in linking (underline) is the way to serve the majority of the visitors of most of the websites.
Others – will have to learn – isn’t it what they are doing most of their time on the Web?
Patrick D. Reply:
September 26th, 2010 at 10:36 pm
Ultimately, because of the flexibility of HTML, there isn’t a right or wrong answer. Both ways work. I agree with your preference. I prefer short linking over obvious and long links.