Open your blog page and count how many links say “Read more”. Now imagine hearing them read out one after another, with nothing else: “Read more, link. Read more, link. Read more, link.” That is what a screen reader user gets when they pull up the list of links on the page, a shortcut many of them use to decide where to go next.
Descriptive link text fixes that, and it is one of the few accessibility fixes your content editors can make themselves, today, in the editor they already use. This post covers what WCAG asks, the usual offenders on business sites, links that open new tabs or download files, and how to fix the “Read more” links your theme generates without rewriting every post.
Why descriptive link text matters more than it looks
Sighted visitors scan. Their eyes catch a colored, underlined phrase and the words around it at the same time, so “click here” next to “Download our menu” usually makes sense to them.
Screen reader users often do something different. NVDA, JAWS and VoiceOver can list every link on a page, and people move through the page by pressing Tab from link to link. In both cases the link is heard on its own, without the sentence around it. A link that says “here” tells them nothing about where it goes.
It is not only screen readers. Voice control users say the words of a link to click it, and “click here” is hard to target when there are five of them. People with cognitive disabilities benefit when a link says plainly what happens next. And everybody skimming a long page reads links first.
What 2.4.4 Link Purpose (In Context) asks for
Success criterion 2.4.4 Link Purpose (In Context) is Level A. It says the purpose of each link should be clear from the link text alone, or from the link text together with its immediate context: the sentence, paragraph or list item it sits in, or the table cell and headers around it.
So strictly speaking, “Read the full report (PDF)” inside a paragraph about that report can pass, because the context makes it clear. But context only helps if the user hears it, and someone tabbing link to link often does not. That is why the practical advice is stronger than the minimum: write link text that makes sense when read on its own.
A quick test that works: read only the underlined words in a paragraph. Could you guess where each link goes?
The usual offenders, and better versions
You will probably recognize most of these.
| Instead of | Try |
|---|---|
| Click here to see our hours | See our opening hours (with “opening hours” as the link) |
| Read more | Read more about winter opening hours |
| Learn more | How our free consultation works |
| https://example.com/files/2026-menu-final-v3.pdf | Dinner menu (PDF) |
| Here, here and here | A separate, named link for each destination |
Three habits fix most of it:
- Link the words that name the destination. Not “click” or “this”, but the noun: “our return policy”, “the booking form”.
- Keep it short but specific. A whole sentence as a link is tiring to listen to. Two to six words is usually right.
- Same words, same place. If two links have identical text, they should go to the same page. Two links both called “Pricing” pointing to different pages confuse everyone.
Fixing theme “Read more” links in WordPress
Blog archives, category pages and “latest posts” sections usually get their “Read more” or “Continue reading” links from the theme, not from your writers. You have a few options, from easiest to most thorough.
- Check whether the theme already does it. Many themes add the post title as hidden text inside the link, so screen readers hear “Continue reading Winter opening hours” while sighted users see “Continue reading”. Inspect the link in your browser’s developer tools; if you see the title inside a
screen-reader-textspan, you are covered. - Make the post title the link. In most archive layouts the post title is already a link. If the “Read more” link is redundant, it can sometimes be removed through the theme or block settings.
- Add hidden context in a child theme. Where the theme does not include it, a developer can change the excerpt “more” text to include the title in visually hidden text:
<a href="/winter-hours/">
Read more<span class="screen-reader-text"> about Winter opening hours</span>
</a>WordPress themes commonly support the screen-reader-text class, which hides text visually but keeps it available to assistive technology. Some developers use an aria-label instead. That works, but the label must include the visible words “Read more” so voice control users can still say what they see.
Page builder post grids have their own “Read more” settings. Change the button text to something specific where you can, or check whether the builder adds the title automatically.
Links that open new tabs
A link that suddenly opens a new tab or window can disorient people, especially screen reader users and people using magnification, who may not notice the change and then find the Back button does nothing.
Our advice:
- Open links in the same tab by default, including links to other sites.
- Where a new tab really helps, such as a help page opened partway through a long form, say so in the link: “Shipping rates (opens in a new tab)”. A small icon alone is not enough unless it has a text alternative.
- Do not set every external link to open in a new tab through a plugin and forget about it.
PDF and file links
People deserve to know before they click that a link downloads a file rather than opening a page. On a phone, an unexpected 15-megabyte PDF is annoying; for a screen reader user it may open in a different program with different shortcuts.
- Name the document, then the file type: “2026 patient intake form (PDF)”.
- Add the size if it is large, and the page count if it matters.
- Never let the raw file name or URL be the link text. When you add a file, WordPress often uses its file name as the link text, so edit it each time; our post on adding PDFs to WordPress shows where.
Before linking a PDF at all, ask whether a PDF should be a web page instead. Often a short page is easier for everyone.
Image links and links that look like buttons
When an image is a link, such as a logo or a product photo, its alt text becomes the link text. A logo link with alt text “logo” is announced as “logo, link”. Alt text such as “Riverside Bakery home” says where it goes. Our guide to writing alt text for images in WordPress covers the mechanics.
Links styled as big colorful buttons follow the same rules: the text on them is the link text, so “Go” or “Submit” alone is too vague. If a “button” actually performs an action on the page rather than taking you somewhere, it should probably be a real button; see when a link should really be a button.
Checking link text accessibility on your site
- On a key page, open your screen reader’s links list (in NVDA, the Elements List; in VoiceOver on a Mac, the rotor). Read the list without looking at the page.
- Flag every link that would not make sense on its own: “here”, “more”, “this”, raw URLs, single words such as “PDF”.
- Flag duplicates: identical text pointing to different places.
- Check the templates first (archive pages, product grids, footers), because fixing one template fixes every page that uses it.
- Then hand content editors a short list of rules for descriptive link text and fix posts as they are updated.
Automated checkers flag empty links and some vague ones, but only part of the problem. Whether “Learn more” is clear in its context is a human judgment.
Link text is one item among every WCAG 2.2 AA requirement in one place. For the bigger picture of audits, fixes and checks over time, visit our website accessibility hub.
Frequently asked questions
Is “click here” actually a WCAG failure?
It depends on context. If the surrounding sentence makes the destination clear, a “click here” link can technically pass 2.4.4. It still makes life harder for anyone moving from link to link or using voice control, so we recommend rewording it every time. Linking the words that name the destination costs nothing.
How long should link text be?
Long enough to say where the link goes, short enough to listen to comfortably. Two to six words is a good range for most links. Avoid turning a whole sentence into a link, and avoid single generic words such as “more” or “here” that only make sense when you can see what is around them.
Do I have to warn people when a link opens a new tab?
Warning them is good practice, and the simplest way is to add “opens in a new tab” to the link text. Better still, open links in the same tab unless there is a real reason not to, such as keeping a half-completed form open while someone reads a help page.
Can I fix all my “Read more” links without editing every post?
Usually yes, because the theme or page builder generates them. A developer can change the template so the link includes the post title as visually hidden text, or so the post title itself serves as the link. One template change then fixes every archive and listing page that uses it.
Our WCAG audit checks your templates and key pages for link purpose and the rest of Level AA, listing each vague or duplicate link with where it comes from. When the cause is the theme, we can fix the link text across templates so editors only have to look after their own wording.
Next in this series: WCAG Reflow and Resize Text: Testing With Browser Zoom
