If you’ve spent any length of time on the web you’ve probably seen something like this:

Click here to check out my website, Core Assistance.

That technically works, but linking this way will cause problems.

First of all, it makes the assumption that the person reading this can click. More and more people are using mobile devices with touch screens, and as we move forward there are going to be a significant number of people who have never even used a mouse.

Secondly, linking to things this way takes the person reading out of the narrative. You don’t need to beat people over the head with the fact that there’s a link. It’s clumsy.

Third, linking this way is often annoying to people with disabilities. Screen readers and other assistive software will often compile a list of all links, out of context, to provide a handy set of possible navigation paths for the user. If your link text isn’t descriptive on it’s own that list of links is going to be useless.

Let’s look at another approach:

Check out my website, Core Assistance.

That’s better. Much more natural, fewer words, and there’s no longer a disconnect between the text describing what’s being linked to and the link itself. The link is integrated into the sentence instead of being tacked on as a separate piece, which makes a big difference.

This all might seem like a small thing, but it’s not an exaggeration to say that links are the single most important part of the web, so taking time to do them right is worth it. Your readers will appreciate it, and what you write will be all the better for it.