Meaningful Links

Self-Explanatory Even Out of Context

Link titles should use clear, concise, and descriptive text. Link titles should explain where they will take site visitors, and users should be able to understand the purpose of the links without reading any of the surrounding text. Clear, specific link titles are especially important for those using assistive devices such as screen readers. These devices can jump directly from link to link, so screen reader users will often receive a list of links without enough context to determine where to go next. For these users, a link simply titled "Click here" or "Read more" is not helpful.

Best Practices for Meaningful Links

  1. Provide clear, concise, and meaningful links that describe their purpose.
  2. Link text should not include URLs.
  3. Don't use the word "link" or other uninformative phrases, such as "Click here" or "Learn more."
  4. Do not use all capital letters. Screen readers read capitalized text letter by letter.
  5. Notify visitors of links to documents that are automatically downloaded. For example: "2021 Annual Report (PDF)."
  6. Never underline text that is not part of a link.
  7. Be mindful when using images as links. Give the image alt text telling screen readers where the link will take users.
  8. Links situated next to each other should not go to the same page. If a linked image and a text link beside it link to the same URL, the image needs an empty alt attribute in most cases. To add an empty alt tag attribute on a Digital Commons site, select the "Decorative Image" checkbox when uploading the image.

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