[thelist] advisability of links to the current page (WAS: <h1> + images + search engines penalties)

ben morrison morrison.ben at gmail.com
Thu May 25 08:06:19 CDT 2006


On 5/25/06, Christian Heilmann <codepo8 at gmail.com> wrote:
> > I've heard this assertion several times here on thelist and I'm not
> > convinced - why shouldn't there be a link to the current page, as long
> > as it is styled to make it absolutely clear that it is the page the user
> > is currently viewing? Personally, I make use of such links quite often.
>
> a) Users without stylesheets
> b) Users with assistive technology who either cannot see your links or
> navigate the page via a list of all links instead of following the
> content word by word
>
> Use Lynx to see for yourself.
>
> What is the use of a link that points to the current page on the
> current page, unless you display dynamic data that changes over time
> ("reload this" link)?

I can see why this *might* be usefull, but I would assume that users
of assistive technology are more interrested in the page title, page
header and content to verify which page they are on. Instead of
reading through the list of navigation items and realising that one of
them is unlinked - which therefore must meen the current page.

Maybe the case is that it doesn't hurt to remove self referential
links and could possibly help some users.

I know Nielsen has raved about this for a few years, but I tend to
take a lot of his stuff with a pinch of salt.

http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20031110.html

Ben



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