William Hudson, UX Strategist and Founder of Syntagm Ltd, introduces the scent of information as a model for understanding how users navigate toward their goals, and sets out the principles for writing navigation links that strengthen that scent.
Information Foraging and the Scent of Information
The scent of information builds on the concept of information foraging: the idea that users, like foraging animals, continuously assess whether their current path is likely to yield results, and change strategy when it is not. Applied to web navigation, this means users are always making a judgment about whether the next click feels promising. A strong scent draws them forward; a weak or misleading one causes them to backtrack or leave.
The practical implication is that navigation links are not just labels: they are promises. Each link sets an expectation about what the destination page will contain. When the destination meets that expectation, the scent intensifies. When it does not, the scent breaks, and the user loses confidence in the navigation.
Link Text Guidelines: A Summary
The video covers two complementary sets of guidelines, from Jared Spool and colleagues and from Jakob Nielsen. The key principles to carry forward:
Match link text to destination content. The words users click on should appear on or clearly relate to the page they land on. A link labeled "Broadband Offers" that leads to a generic products page breaks the scent immediately.
Front-load the most important words. Nielsen's eye-tracking research found that the first two words of a link, roughly 11 characters, carry most of the navigational weight. Action-oriented and topic-specific words should come first, not last.
Use specific, non-overlapping terms. Vague or overlapping labels force users to hesitate. If two links could plausibly lead to the same destination, users cannot make a confident choice between them.
Follow established conventions. Familiar terms such as "Contact Us," "About," or "My Account" carry recognized meaning. Replacing them with branded or invented terminology makes the navigation harder to read, particularly for new users.
Never use "click here." As the video notes, this is a problem for both usability and accessibility. Users who rely on screen readers to list page links hear only a sequence of identical prompts, with no indication of where each link leads.
A Note on Link Text Length
The video mentions that Spool's original guideline suggested link text of 7 to 12 words, while Nielsen's later research pointed to much shorter text, with the first two words being decisive. These are not contradictory: Spool was describing the minimum context needed to convey a meaningful scent, while Nielsen was identifying where users' attention actually falls within that text. In practice, aim for link text that is long enough to be specific and short enough that the key words land in the first two or three positions.
Intranets and Internal Jargon
The video's observation about intranet jargon is worth emphasizing. Organizations frequently build intranets using internal brand names, project codenames, or departmental terminology that is opaque to anyone who did not already know it. For a new team member trying to use the intranet to find out how the company works, this is exactly the wrong vocabulary to navigate by. The same plain-language principle that applies to public websites applies here, arguably more so, since the intranet may be someone's primary tool for getting oriented in a new role.
AI-Generated Link Text
AI writing tools can draft link text quickly, but they tend toward generic phrasing (“Learn More,” “Read About Our Services”) or keyword padding that weakens the scent. Check any generated label against the principles here: does it front-load the specific words, and does it make an honest promise about the destination?
The Take Away
Every navigation link is a promise about what the destination page contains. When the page delivers on that promise, the scent strengthens; when it does not, users lose confidence and leave.
Front-load link text with the most specific and action-oriented words. The first two words carry the most navigational weight.
Specific, non-overlapping terms reduce hesitation. Vague or overlapping labels force users to guess.
"Click here" as link text fails both usability and accessibility requirements. Link text must describe the destination, not the action of clicking.
Plain language applies to intranets as much as to public websites. Internal jargon excludes the users who most need the navigation to be clear.
References and Further Reading
See our Glossary of Human-Computer Interaction for more on Information Foraging and our article Web User Behaviour Directed by Information Scent.
Read more about link text at WebAIM's Guide to Links and Hypertext.
