No offense… but telling your audience to "Click here" are the laziest two words in marketing. This call to action doesn't tell anyone what's on the other side of the link, it doesn't tell Google what the page is about and it definitely doesn't tell an AI search engine why your page deserves to be the answer. It's a missed opportunity, and at 898 Marketing, we’re in the business of turning missed opportunities into actionable, successful next steps in any campaign.
Here's the truth: every link on your website is a small sales pitch. It's the moment you ask someone to take an action, and "click here" wastes that moment completely. If you want people (and search engines) to actually act on what you're offering, the words around your links have to work harder.
Why "Click Here" Is Costing You More Than You Think
Generic link text is a three-way loss, and here’s why:
It's bad for SEO. Search engines use link text to understand what the destination page is about. A link that says "click here" tells Google nothing. A link that says "see our website design and development services" tells Google exactly what to expect and helps that page rank for the terms that actually matter.
It's bad for AEO. AI Overviews and tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity are pulling structured, well-labeled content to build their answers. We talked about this in “How to Optimize Your Blog Structure for AI Overviews” and the same principle applies here. Vague link text gives AI systems nothing to cite. Descriptive link text gives them a reason to point at you.
It's bad for accessibility. Screen readers often extract a list of links from a page so visually impaired users can navigate more easily. If every link on your site says "click here" or "learn more," that list is useless. Descriptive link text is one of the fastest, cheapest accessibility wins available to any website.
Say This Instead
The fix isn't complicated. It just takes intention.
Instead of "click here to learn more," try telling the reader what they'll actually get. Here are some great, actionable examples.
- “Explore our branding and marketing services"
- "See how we approach search engine optimization and AEO"
- "Find out why a Google Business Profile matters for NE Ohio businesses"
The pattern is simple: verb plus specific destination. What are you asking someone to do, and what will they find when they do it? If you can't answer both of those in your link text, you haven't finished writing it yet.
This matters just as much inside your own site as it does on the surface. Internal links are one of the most underused tools in a website's toolbox, connecting your pages, spreading authority across your site, and keeping people moving instead of bouncing. Every one of those links is a missed opportunity if the text attached to it doesn't say anything.
A Quick Gut Check
Before you publish anything, try this test: cover up every part of the page except the links. Could someone understand what your site offers just from that list? If the answer is a page full of "click here," "learn more" and "read more" repeated over and over, you've got work to do. If the answer is a list of specific, honest descriptions of what's behind each link, you're building a page that works for humans, for search engines and for the AI tools increasingly standing between your business and the people trying to find you.
This isn't about clever copywriting tricks. It's about respecting the reader enough to tell them what you're actually offering. It's the same standard we hold every piece of content to. Good copy sounds like a person who knows what they're talking about, not a template.
Let's Fix Your Links
If your site is still leaning on "click here" and "learn more" across the board, that's an easy problem to solve, and it's one small piece of a much bigger opportunity to get your website working harder for you. Whether it's link text, site structure or a full SEO and AEO strategy, we'd love to take a look at your website. Reach out to our team and let's talk about what your website could actually be saying.
