Don’t click here – avoid verbs? (Part 2)
This is a follow-up to our earlier post about using verbs for links on websites. Thanks to everyone for their comments.
The consensus seems to be that verbs are okay in many instances as link text, even advisable in some circumstances. We officially volunteer to help update the W3C specs on the language of links.
However, our endorsement of verbs has some limitations. For example, we noticed this week that gerunds don’t seem advisable. What’s a gerund? Here’s what dictionary.com had to say:
The English -ing form of a verb when functioning as a noun, as writing in Writing is easy.
This presents some challenges for the online copywriter. We find ourselves often re-working sentences to avoid the gerund form. For example:
You can find out more by contacting us.
Not so good. This is better:
Contact us to find out more.
To sum it up about using verbs for link text:
- Verbs are fine as link text
- Avoid the gerund (-ing) form.