Nick Donnelly: Founder CityKing.com, Usability Geek, Developer, Business Owner, Traveller, Iconoclast. Based in East London.Most websites do this - but I’d expect more from The Telegraph - check this out
I know, shocking isn’t it.
Just in case you havent spotted it look at the end of that paragraph:
Read older posts by Tom here.
This is basic stuff. They would never allow fluffy, wasteful writing like that into the paper, but all standards seem to vanish online.
Here is how it should read:
There are multiple problems here.
Pointless words ‘read’ and ‘here’.
Bad copywriting is bad copywriting - it reflects just as badly on you online as it does in print. Standards should be enforced.
Barely perceptible link
Not only is the link not underlined (web usability 101), but it is in a shade of ‘blue’ with barely any perceptible difference to black.
Links should always be underlined, and for maximum usability a different colour; ideally blue.
Undescriptive link text
‘here’ tells us, and search engines, nothing about where the link goes. We have to read the rest of the line for context (remember we scan, we don’t usually read everything).
Search engines, however, will think that is yet another link to an article about ‘here’.
Why Only Older Posts?
What if you want to read his newer posts, or more likely - just want to see a page linking to them all? Better examples:
Here’s the page you click through to:
Nein, nein, nein, nein, nein!
Web users understand what blue underlined text means. It’s a hyperlink. You don’t need to explain it by saying ‘go here’. Adding ‘for’ or ‘read’ is totally redundant. We know you read a post. This awful, wasteful copy & bad usability add a tiny bit to the cognitive load of millions of people every week.
Causing countless man years to be lost to this problem every year.
Dont Make Us Think!
‘Small’ usability errors like this are often a huge red flag for a website. It’s usually a signal that the site is littered with usability issues.
Resulting in fewer, shorter, more stressful visits to your website - leading to lower revenue and profits.
Companies can’t afford to ignore usability.
Telegraph, please apply the same standards to your website that you do to your newspaper!
