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Site Promotion & Search Engine Optimization: Meaningful Hyperlink Text

Originally Published: 2006-03-12
Updated: 2006
The main allure that helped have the Web appealing to people is ability to click on a hyperlink and, in the blink of an eye, find themselves on another page within the site or another site. A bad fad developed in the 1990's. You may have seen it shared on other sites while Web surfing. This article discusses about providing meaningful anchor text to links.

... to read more, click here.

That, or similar wording, exists on millions Web pages. Don't beleive me? Do a query for the phrase Click Here at any search engine of your choice.

However, this type of anchor text, used for the hyperlink, is meaningless. It offers next to no information to the reader outside of presenting them with a link that is reliant on the preceeding text to inform the person "this will take you to ...". Unless looking at the status bar, on your browser, you wouldn't known the above Click Here-type link only lead to having this page reload.

Mystery Meat

You want to tempt people into clicking on links. However, oddly enough, sometimes the preceeding text may not induce a person to click on an obscurely worded link. There is a term for graphics, that relay next to no hints about where they lead a person, used for a site's menu or main means of navigation: Mystery Meat.

Allow me to explain, using a restuarant as an example. In Pittsburgh, up until 2005, there was a little bar-restaurant next to the High Level Bridge in the Homestead area called Chioda's. Chioda's existed for many decades and one of their menu offerings was a Mystery Sandwich.

A customer could ask what is on a Mystery Sandwich but the server would not be able to answer as she, or he, wouldn't know until the cook made it. It could be anything the cook had on-hand to put on the bun. Hence the mystery as the customer had no idea what to expect until the sandwich was placed on the table. Sometimes the combinations were tasty, other times they were not.

Even though the customer knew in advance that they ran a risk of getting an unedible combination, this did not always have them feeling delighted about seeing that odd-combination set in front of them. More than one person muttered that they wished having some idea of what was leftover in the kitchen before ordering.

Likewise when a person clicks on a link offered on a Web page - they understand that the link may lead them to more information, within that site or from another one. This doesn't negate the person would like some information or clue about where that link will take them versus being surprised. Click Here or Read more is not always as informative as a Web page author may have originally thought.

Another Reason to Provide More Meaningful Anchor Text

Search engine optimization. It is said, by many, that search engines factor in anchor text (for text links) as part of consideration in ranking.

If you are wanting to lead people to a page about feline leukemia, then More about <a href="page.html">feline leukemia</a>. is better than To read more about feline leukemia <a href="page.html">Click HERE</a>. The first one has two keywords making up, or being part of, the anchor text while the second one's anchor text is lacking any keywords.

<a href="page.html">click here to read more information about feline leukemia</a> is not optimal either. This has 9 words in the anchor text vying for part of the attention. Search engines are said to take into consideration, on a low level perhaps, text surrounding a hyperlink. If that is true, then you wouldn't need to include click here to read so we could remove at least 4 words from the previously 9 word anchor text.

People will not be looking for your contents, through search engines, with phrases of read more..., click here ..., go to this page ..., or such wording preceding their query term or phrase. Think of the KISS rule of thumb where less can sometimes be best - even in terms of wording used as anchor text.