Writers' Toolkit Write Write useful link text

Write useful link text

Link text is important for search engines and users, and is critical for accessibility. Wikipedia defines link text as, “The anchor text, link label or link text is the visible, clickable text in an HTML hyperlink. The term “anchor” was used in older versions of the HTML specification…”

The primary purpose of link text is to give users a short summary of the link destination content.

Summary

When writing link text, pay attention to words, quantity of links, and the length of link text.

Words

• Make link text abundantly obvious as to what the next page is about.

• Use or do not use words such as Click here, More, and Read more:

  • Use them if they are on a website card.

  • Do not use them as standalone link text, because they can be confusing when a screen reader reads them out of context.

• When linking to GitHub, include GitHub repository in the sentence text or link text.

  For example:

  • “To learn more, go to the [faro-web-sdk]() repository.”
  • ”To learn more about Grafana Faro, go to its [repository]().”

• When linking from outside of a documentation page, include documentation in the text.

Quantity

• Aim for no more than two links per paragraph.

  Some links are essential for additional context, and others are nice to have but not necessary.

  Using too many links on a page makes it difficult for a user to read the content.

Length

• Keep link text short and concise.
• Never start with articles: a, an, or the.
• Do not link whole sentences; aim for a maximum of four to five words.

Examples