In Nielsen's "Designing Web Usability" I remember him frowning on the use of "here" and "click here" as links. Since around 2000, when I first read the book, I heeded his advice.
For more information: click here
To sign up, go here
were cardinal no-nos, if I remember correctly.
But it looks like everybody else uses this technique, and the average web surfer is more likely to click give the redundant area to click on.
Maybe people are just more comfortable with "click here" when the links lead to an undefined word, like Twitter. Would it be true to say that most people on the web don't know what Twitter is? Do most of Curtis's visitors know what it is? If most of his visitors don't know, are they clicking on "here" because it's a more comfortable link given Twitter is undefined? While each of his test cases vary in wording, the first 3 are all alike in that twitter is the only word hyperlinked.
My theory is that people are less likely to click on hyperlinks if the hyperlinked text or word is something they don't know about. If you're talking about a brand name, service, or anything not general knowledge than you're better off with "click here."
But it looks like everybody else uses this technique, and the average web surfer is more likely to click give the redundant area to click on.
Maybe people are just more comfortable with "click here" when the links lead to an undefined word, like Twitter. Would it be true to say that most people on the web don't know what Twitter is? Do most of Curtis's visitors know what it is? If most of his visitors don't know, are they clicking on "here" because it's a more comfortable link given Twitter is undefined? While each of his test cases vary in wording, the first 3 are all alike in that twitter is the only word hyperlinked.
My theory is that people are less likely to click on hyperlinks if the hyperlinked text or word is something they don't know about. If you're talking about a brand name, service, or anything not general knowledge than you're better off with "click here."