TechEvangelists

Great points, Meghan. I like to think about how Google relates what the link text is and what the destination is. In this way you should really think about describing the site by the link text. Not to be picky, but to link "See our website for more" is not descriptive but linking the words (for example) "great resource for design tips" is descriptive. I think the goal should be to describe the content of the link with the link text.

Thanks for discussing one of my pet peeves, Meghan. A close look at the ``Googlebombing'' phenomenon really highlights the importance of link text itself.

For example, the humorous results for "miserable failure" and "weapons of mass destruction" did not happen by accident---they happened because so many people linked to a given web site with an exact phrase for the link.

If you do a Google search for "Click here" you'll see things like Acrobat Reader, Internet Explorer, and other free software downloads required for viewing media online. Web site often have copy like "If you do not have Acrobat, click here to download it." All of those associations are worthless; if every "click here" link actually contained a descriptive phrase about the site it linked to, Google's job would get easier.

Re: Michael's point on "See our website for more." You're right that it should be more descriptive; I was thinking in terms of links that tend to follow a paragraph in an email, and then link someone to more content online, or extended content (like the "MORE...") link in Movable Type. Though, there is probably no good reason why links in an email shouldn't be just as descriptive as a link online.

In a future email campaign, it might be interesting to test different types of link text to see if it affects clickthrough rates.

I think it would be worth sending this directly to the copywriters.

Or maybe just send an email with only a link to this article, titled "Click here."

You are right, Meghan, that linking within the context of sentences is a great way to link. If one can do that *and* link words that are most descriptive, then we have the Perfect Link(tm).