Descriptive link text

What descriptive link text is

Link text is the clickable part of a link. Descriptive link text says where that link goes before anyone follows it. “Click here” does not. Neither does “read more”, “this page”, “learn more”, “here”, or a web address printed out in full and read aloud character by character. The job is to go through everything you have published and replace each of them with words that name the destination: “download the 2026 price list”, “book a site visit”, “read the warranty terms”.

This is the smallest and cheapest piece of work on the site, and I would rather say so than dress it up. It is a batch job. It takes a list of links, a set of decisions and a careful pass, and it is finished. Most people buy it once for everything they have, and then never need it again because the habit is easy to keep.

It is not internal linking, which decides which of your pages ought to link to which, and it is not link checking, which finds the ones that no longer work. This service takes your existing links, pointing wherever they already point, and fixes only the words on top of them.

When you need it

When somebody has told you your links are a problem, usually after an accessibility check or a complaint. A screen reader user can call up a list of every link in a page or document; if that list reads “here, here, read more, click here, here”, the page is unusable to them and there is nothing else on the list to go by.

It is also worth doing simply because vague links get followed less. A reader deciding whether to click wants to know what is on the other side, and “read more” tells them nothing. That is true on a phone, in an email, and in a printed PDF where the address is the only clue.

You do not need it as a separate purchase if your document also has headings that are only big bold text, lists that are not really lists, or tables built for appearance. That is all one job, accessible document copy, and the links are included in it. Buying this on its own makes sense when the links genuinely are the only thing wrong.

What gets changed

• Empty phrases. Every “click here”, “read more”, “learn more”, “this link”, “here” and “more information” replaced with the destination named.
• Bare addresses. Printed web addresses turned into words. Where a document is meant to be printed as well, the address is kept alongside in a footnote rather than in the link itself.
• Repeated text, different destinations. The common and worse fault: eleven links all reading “our services” that go to eleven different pages. Each one given its own wording.
• File links. A link to a download says what the file is and what kind of file it is, so nobody opens a 40-page PDF on a phone by accident.
• Length and place. Link text kept short enough to hear in one breath, and moved so the meaningful words are inside the link rather than beside it.

What I do not do is change where anything points, add links, or remove them. If a link goes to the wrong page I flag it and leave it, because moving it is a different decision and yours to make.

What you get

The replacement list. One spreadsheet, one row per link: where it sits, the destination, the current wording and the new wording. Ordered by page or by document, so somebody can work down it without stopping to think.

The edited files. Where the content is in documents I can edit, the changes are made and the files come back done. Where it is in a website, the list is the deliverable unless you want me to make the changes in the system as well.

Three lines of guidance. Not a style guide. Three rules that fit on a sticky note, so the next person adding a link does not undo the work.

A worked example

An illustration, not a client. A Kelowna bookkeeping firm has a 62-page website and a 30-page client handbook it sends to every new account. Between them there are 380 links. A public-sector client that has just hired the firm asks whether the handbook is accessible, and nobody knows.

The pass finds 214 links that need new wording. Ninety-one read “click here” or “read more”. Thirty-eight are bare addresses typed out in full, several of them wrapped across two lines. Twenty-two say “our services” and go to seven different pages. The rest are assorted. The handbook's list of links, read out, had said almost nothing about the handbook; afterwards it reads as a table of contents. The firm applies the spreadsheet over two afternoons, the handbook is re-exported, and the whole thing is done inside a week. It was the cheapest item on that year's list of jobs and the one the new client noticed first.

How it runs

1. A half-hour call. What the site or document set is, roughly how many links, and whether you want the changes made or just listed. No charge, and for a job this small an email often does instead.
2. A fixed price in writing. Based on the number of links, not the word count.
3. You send the material. The editable documents, or the page addresses, or an export of your links if your system produces one.
4. The pass. Every link followed far enough to name its destination accurately, then rewritten. Two to four working days for a set of this size.
5. Delivery. The list, the edited files, and the three rules. No follow-up call needed unless you want one.

What it costs

This is quoted as a fixed price in CAD after the call, and it is the least expensive thing on this site. The price depends on how many links there are and whether I am making the changes or handing you the list. When it is bought alongside a larger edit it usually costs nothing extra, because the links get fixed while I am in the document anyway, and I will tell you that rather than invoice twice. The pricing page shows the four ways I work. The number is agreed in writing beforehand.

What happens next

Usually nothing, which is the point of a job this size. If the pass showed that the structure around the links is also missing, the wider copy fix is the one to buy next. If following every link turned up a pile of dead ones, link checking deals with those properly. And if the exercise made it obvious that your best pages are barely linked to from anywhere, deciding what should point where is internal linking. This job is complete on its own, and nothing further is assumed.