This post was last updated on March 11, 2026
Added March 11, 2026: Jakob Nielsen pioneered web usability, and now in 2026 there’s been plenty of time to pick part his ideas. For example “Jakob Nielsen was right… but also wrong”.
But I’ll definitely defend the recommendation to not use “click here”. Sadly, it still happens often enough that click here is still specifically singled out in editorial guides.
Click here is also noted as a failure condition in the WCAG 2.2 guidelines for link purpose.
“Click here” Why must people say things like “click here” on a web site link? It’s on Jakob Nielsen’s list of Top Ten Web Design Mistakes of 2005. 2005 people!
Explain what users will find at the other end of the link, and include some of the key information-carrying terms in the anchor text itself to enhance scannability and search engine optimization (SEO). Don't use "click here" or other non-descriptive link text.
I’ll admit I’m no usability genius, but I learned to not use click here a long time ago.