Readable Links

Which of these is easier to read?

• Diabetes mellitus (click here for more information) is epidemic, according to CDC data. Click here to see the data.

• Diabetes mellitus is epidemic, according to CDC data.

Scattering "click here" throughout your pages breaks the flow of the text, and makes pages harder to read. Reading text on computers is already more difficult than reading print; there's no need to to make it harder still. Integrating links with the flow of text increases readability.

Therefore, create link text that reads well.

Readable links gain importance when a page is presented in another medium. For example, when a page is printed or read offline, "click here" makes no sense, since clicking doesn't work. Making link text readable improves Offline Readability.

Because you're not indicating the presence of a link with special text ("click here"), use Recognizable Links.

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