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What is Link Text?
Link text is the text a user selects for a link to take them to a different location on the same page or a different destination.
Readable (discernible) link text is the content read to a web visitor utilizing a screen reader when the link gets focus.
Why Link Text and Readable Link Text Matters
Having readable, informative text associated with your link(s) is critical for users who use screen readers to help them easily navigate your site. These users are typically not using a mouse and utilize a keyboard to navigate. In addition, well-crafted link text helps users with cognitive difficulties.
Screen readers often allow users to jump through available links on web pages. This means that links are often read outside of the context of the webpage's content.
Good link text also matters because:
People with motion impairment can skip links they know they are not interested in, avoiding any keystrokes needed to visit the link destination and then return to the original page.
People with visual disabilities will more easily be able to understand a link's destination by reviewing the link context.
Link text is also an important consideration for Search Engine Optimization and your site's usability.
Link Text Best Practices
Link text should be able to stand on its own and allow a web visitor to know where it will go by solely reading or hearing the link's text and nothing else around it.
Link text should not include the URL of the link. Screen readers will read each letter of the URL if it is in the link text.
It is a best practice not to use the same text for more than one link unless the links go to the same destination. Duplicating link text can pose an accessibility issue, making the website experience inconsistent for accessible technology users. If you do use the same link text, you must provide additional information.
Having link text and the page title of the link destination agree or be very similar provides continuity as your users move through your site.
Learn about Readable Link Text: Correcting.
Learn More with WCAG
Understanding Link Purpose (WCAG site)
Section 508: 1194.22 (a) Text equivalent for non-text elements
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