Click HERE! No thank you.

One of my pet peeves on websites and in e-mails is the ever-present "click here" link.

Whenever I see one, I just cringe. But it's not just my grammar and style OCD that makes this bad--links like these make it hard for search engines and users to figure out what you are trying to communicate.

Remember, web readers are scanners--they aren't looking at everything on your site and they certainly aren't reading all the copy. So if you have an important bit of info that you want to provide them through a link, you need to not only provide that link but also describe to them WHAT they will find there.

Providing descriptive links allows quick scanning users to see relevant content easily. If they have to go back and read a sentence to figure out what is behind the "click here," it's highly likely they won't click.

Plus, it's a lot more likely that a search engine will register that relevant content if it's clearly labeled.