Just a word of writing advice, if you link content inside the text it should be first or last word, never in the middle. It just takes a lot of effort to know what the link in the middle of the text is about.
I don't agree with that at all. For example, if I refer to violinists like [Oscar Shumsky] and [Yehudi Menuhin], and I create links from their names to relevant articles about them, I don't think you'd have any trouble figuring out what it's about. I think this article did a good job of that, linking from relevant text that clearly indicates the topic of the destination, except maybe for "Writing consistently…".
Personally it constrains my eyes if the link is in the middle of article. It simply takes an extra effort.
However, its not just me. You can find online a bunch of research on the topic.
Can you share the research on this topic? If I understand you correctly what you’re saying is very different to my experience (and how popular sites like Wikipedia etc work). So I’d like to read the research. I’ve tried to google a bit but can’t find anything yet and not 100% sure what keywords to search for.
sorry it was weeks ago, And by spending 5 minutes googling i couldn't find it.
However I can summarise the point of that article. It basically says since links stand out, first thing you read from paragraph are links. If the link is on the beginning of the article, you naturally read the link and continue reading it. If it's on the end of the article, you'll first read the link and after it go back to begging of reading paragraph. If it's in the middle, you'll wonder what the paragraph is about, so your eyes will naturally read the first few words of paragraph and after it a couple of end words of paragraph. Before continuing to read article.
The author that wrote that article was obviously an expert in UI/UX and has spent a great deal thinking/doing articles.
An example that you've mentioned, Wikipedia, it doesn't have such huge contrast between link and text, and I'm expecting it to be full of links.I suppose thats the reason why but I don't do the described behaviour on it. However I often find myself doing the described behaviour when reading blogs, making me ignore/stop reading the blogs that do a lot of linking.
I'm still having trouble picturing how to actually implement the suggestion.
Could you, as an example, rewrite the first paragraph of the fine article, so that the 3 links are either at the start or end of the paragraph (as suggested), in a way that makes the contents of the paragraph and/or the link context clearer?
Looks like you're misunderstanding. There is a need to downvote because you're projecting your opinion (that some people strongly disagree with) as "advice", as if it's a fact. It's correct to downvote imho, which is what I did.
Similar to Wikipedia, it's ok, if not preferable, to link words in the middle of a sentence. I prefer it, some people I know prefer it. It's ok to give advice, but when the jury is still out, it's crucial to be humble.
> It just takes a lot of effort to know what the link in the middle of the text is about.
How does specifically linking the first or last word (of ...the sentence? paragraph?) make things any clearer?
Wouldn't it be best to just link the words that most describe what the linked-to page is about (maybe even the linked-to page title?), no matter where they appear?
