In the past, I’ve discussed on this blog why it’s important to create meaningful, descriptive text for your links.
It’s one of my pet peeves and something I tweet about on Twitter every week.
Also known as anchor text, link text provides a clear description of where readers will go when they select the link.
Link text matters.
One method to make sure you’ve written good link text: read it out loud.
Does it make sense? If it does, wonderful! If it doesn’t, return to your link text and rephrase it.
The Problem With Anchor Text
Did you know one of the ways screen reader users navigate a web page is to bring up a list of page links?
And when there’s not meaningful link text, that’s a problem.
A list of:
- Here
- More
- Click here
- Read more
isn’t helpful.
What does “Here” mean?
Where will the user go?
Your guess is as good as mine.
About WordPress “More” Links
In many WordPress themes and archive pages, an excerpt for a post is displayed with a link after the excerpt.
Which is known as the “more” link. (Some people call it the “read more” link.)
When you select the “more” link, you’re directed to read the post.
By default, the link is plain text that says “more” or “continue reading” or “read more.”
Which is problematic.
A person using assistive technology to navigate the page will get a list of “read more” links.
Or something similar.
Wouldn’t it be helpful if the “more” links provided more context, with the name of the post in the link?
Several years ago, one of the members of the WordPress accessibility team recognized the problem and developed a solution which I’ve been using for years.
Use the WP Accessibility Plugin to Add Post Title to “More” Links
Created by Joe Dolson, the free WP Accessibility plugin, provides a number of features to address accessibility problems in WordPress themes.
It offers several helpful features, including many I’ve used in the past
- Adding skip links
- Adding language and text direction
- Identifying images without alternative text attributes in the Media Library
To add the post title to “more” links and create more meaningful link text:
- Install WP Accessibility
- Activate the plugin
- In the Miscellaneous Accessibility Settings section, activate the Add post title to “more” links. option.
- Customize the Continue reading text with your own wording
- Select Save
For an example of how the WP Accessibility plugin works, here’s what my blog page includes for my weekly roundup post:
In this week’s web design and development news roundup, you’ll learn about the current state of checkout UX, find out what to expect in the upcoming WordPress 5.8.2 version, discover a helpful online course for responsive web design, and more. Continue reading November 5, 2021: Weekly Roundup of Web Design and Development News
Notice how the end of the excerpt includes the phrase “Continue reading” with the post title.
Summary
Avoid “more” links that provide no context to users. By using the WP Accessibility plugin, you expand your “more” links with the post title.
Which creates descriptive link text providing context to everyone reading your post.
What I like about WP Accessibility is that you don’t have to be a designer or developer to use it. It’s for every WordPress user who doesn’t want to delve into code.
Have you used WP Accessibility on your WordPress website?
