Writing Descriptive Links
What are descriptive links?
Link text should be clear, meaningful, and specific, giving users enough context to understand exactly where the link will take them. Make every link self-explanatory by following this guideline: useful hyperlinks describe the destination, not the action. Poorly written hyperlinks tell users to “click,” “read,” or “learn” without context.
Avoid using vague phrases like “click here,” “read more,” or “learn more” as the only linked text. Examples:
- Do: “Read our strategic plan.”
- Don't: “Click here for our strategic plan.”
Also, avoid using the same link text for different destinations. If you have two “Contact Us” links on the same page, they should both take the user to the same place.
Why are descriptive links important for accessibility?
People who use screen readers can ask their software to read all the links on a page aloud. If every link just says “click here,” the user won’t know where those links lead or why they’re important.
But if the list of links sounds like “quarterly report,” “sign up,” and “about our team,” the user can decide exactly where to go next.
Similarly, avoid pasting full URLs directly into the text. A screen reader will read the entire link character by character — listening to “h-t-t-p-s-colon-slash-slash…” is not an accessible or pleasant experience.
What other benefits are there?
Descriptive links help everyone, not just screen reader users. Links are styled to stand out — underlined, in a different color, and often highlighted when hovered over. This styling makes them easy to spot and signals to every user: “This is clickable.” The web development team has ensured the visual styling on the university website is compliant with WCAG standards, but it up to you, our contributors to ensure the links are expressive.
Clear link text also works as a call-to-action. If you want people to read a plan, link the text “Read the plan” rather than “Click here to read the plan.” It’s more direct, more persuasive, and easier to scan. Our T4 guide addresses link accessibility and how to ensure our users have the best experience.