New Article - SEO Basics: "Click Here" Is Evil

[thejenn]

Authored by: Jennifer Laycock

Full Text: http://www.searchengineguide.com/laycock/010026.html

A Snippet:

There is no denying the power of link text when it comes to search engine optimization. Whether it's your internal link structure, your outgoing links or your incoming links, the anchor text that gets used can have a strong impact on your search engine rankings. That's why if you are new to search engine optimization and you can fit just ONE thing on to your "linking to do" list this week, it should be banning the text "click here" from your web site.

[Crimson Fox]

While I agree that using 'click here' is a wasted opportunity for SEO. I still think that for usability it can sometimes outweigh the SEO benefits.

I don't know how many times I've done site testing where non-tech audiences have been tripped up by links describing a page rather than simply explaining that this is where they have to click.

As long as you are weighing up the benefits of each method and understand the consequences of each you can make better judgment calls on when and when not to use "click here" style links

[Debra]

Great article Jennifer!

Crimson Fox, I couldn't agree more, sometimes we take the "keyword rich anchor text links" mantra too far and forget that it's people with VISA cards clicking links and spending money, not bots.

On the other hand, giving up link popularity opportunity isn't good either, the value behind the right verbiage is like money in the bank.

Compromise?

I think it's safe to say most people know that different colored, underlined verbiage on a page means that text is a hyperlink. Where this gets to be a problem is when the verbiage isn't aligned at the end of an informational paragraph or in a logical location.

Hyperlinking text in the front of a sentence and not doing so again at the end could result in a prospect losing interest or focus while reading. Consider keeping the links at the end of the sales pitch, or within the flow of the information so it's a natural reaction to click and move on.

[danielb]

great article! I wrote something very similar a while ago. I both agree & disagree with Crimson Fox. I think this is a good rule of thumb:

A) if it's informational, descriptive text is fine
B) if it's an action you want visitors to perform, & you want to spell it out, word it as an action (eg. 'read about our menu changes')

as Debra says, a lot of it is about context: if your link style is clearly identifiable & you put things in logical places, there's no need to ever have a plain "click here" link on your site again.

[fairdoes]

Headings in SEO

Useful info, as ever. I came across one site this week that has outstanding Search results (*), and her only links are internal (her own site) and keywords aren't used much in the links. I was amazed!

Her SEO Secret

The secret there seems to be professional use of headings on the key pages.

Lets hope it works in this post (I nearly forgot ...)

(*)It's an arts site with no commercial aims, and she gets thousands of visitors per day, mostly from Google.

[costacalida]

Yes it is not good for SEO purposes, however - SEO is not all about completely optimizing a site solely for search engines, there are human users out there that are using your website.

So many older users are coming to the site and having links all over the place just for optimization is no good at all. These guys need an easy and straight forward site to use to navigate their way around, so yes some times using click here or read more or download is important for the simple functions of your website.

I have been unwinding some of the sites recently just to make them more user friendly instead of optimizing them to the hill and one of the sites has actually gained from it, which is proof that it isn't hurting it at all and great for results.

[ethnicomm]

One of the challenges that I (as a marketer using SEO) see is the balance between making your site user friendly and search engine friendly. Sometimes this seems mutually exclusive.

I agree with Crimson Fox - there is no point in having links that don't drive a user to action. We spend a lot of energy on ranking but not a lot on converting. At the end of the day, how are we making money....it's by getting people to come to the site and then DO something....try, buy or connect to you. If our SEO efforts don't support this end result, it is a wasted effort IMHO.

[thejenn]

Why are the two mutually exclusive?

[fairdoes]

Why are the two mutually exclusive?

They aren't. Ever get the feeling you're juggling too many balls? This is a tricky business, and likely to get harder as more and more goods and services compete online ...

[fairdoes]

P.S. Thanks for the free book Jen