What is meaningful link text?
Hyperlinks connect link text to a particular destination on the web (such as a web page, a particular section of a webpage, or a web-hosted document). Meaningful link text refers to link text that describes its destination. For example, "click here" is not meaningful link text, whereas "Digital Accessibility Office Resources" is.
How do I write meaningful link text?
Don't use the URL
Link text should consist of an informative description of the destination website rather than the actual URL.
- Bad example: https://oit.colorado.edu/services/consulting-professional-services/captioning/request-captioning/webform/request-captioning
- Good example: CU Boulder Captioning Service
The only exception to this rule is if users are intended to memorize the exact URL of a web page, such as canvas.colorado.edu or mycuinfo.colorado.edu.
Describe the destination
Generic and uninformative link text like “here”, “click here”, or “read more” should be avoided.
- Bad example: For accessible technology resources, click here.
- Good example: Consult our Accessible Technology Resources.
Indicate destination file type
If the link destination is a document rather than a web page, indicate the type of document in the link text. For example, “CU Boulder Digital Accessibility Standards (pdf)”.
Use unique link names
Avoid using the same link text for links that lead to different destinations.
- Bad example: We have a guide for Word accessibility and a guide for PowerPoint accessibility.
- Good example: We have guides for Word accessibility and PowerPoint accessibility.
If you have multiple links on a page leading to the same destination, it is a best practice to use the same link text for each link.
Why is meaningful link text important?
Screen reader users often hear link text out of context of its location on the page. One common way for screen reader users to get a quick digest of the page content is to listen to the list of all links that appear on the page, which are read out as the text of the link rather than the destination URL. Without informative link text, the screen reader user may just hear a list consisting of “click here”, “click here”, “click here”. This is also why it is important to use unique link text for each unique URL destination: if you have links with the same link text that have different destination URLs, a screen reader user wouldn’t be able to distinguish between those links out of context.
Web pages are the expected destination of a hyperlink. When a link’s destination is a web-hosted document, the file often automatically downloads to the user’s device. This change in context can be confusing if the user doesn’t expect it. For this reason, it is important to inform the user if you are linking to a document rather than a web page.