Why People Don’t Click Your Bylines
Written by Alice Seba
Sometimes an assumption is a dangerous thing. That said, this post is going to include an assumption or two. Of course, I prefer to call it an educated guess and welcome your educated guess as well.
This all started with something Ezine Articles posted on Twitter earlier today:
I very much respect and appreciate the information provided in that statement. After all, we may not have known this information about click throughs if Ezine Articles hadn’t dug into the massive amount of data they have at their fingertips. But I definitely question the assumption about WHY certain links are clicked more readily.
Before getting into this:
I want to acknowledge that people submit articles to Ezine Articles and other directories for different reasons, so what approach you take with linking will certain depend on your goals:
- Some are looking for SEO benefit and thus, they use anchor text to gain them favor for specific keyword phrases.
- Some want to get traffic from their bylines and in that case, would likely focus on having a strong call-to-action in their byline.
- Some submit with the goal of having their articles republished on other sites. Considering that many web publishers copy-and-paste articles straight from Ezine Articles, having a URL written out in full makes sense.
Of course…and I hope this describes you…submit articles for all of the above reasons. If that’s the case, I imagine you aim to combine an anchor text link AND a URL written out in full. In other words, you use both types of links. Personally, I think that’s a smart thing to do.
With that out of the way:
Now back to this assumption that was made in the above tweet. Ezine Articles suggests that visitors don’t click anchor text link as readily as they do full URLs because they are suspicious of the author’s motives.
That doesn’t really add up for me. Ezine Articles receives a heck of a lot of traffic directly from search engines. In other words, the average Internet user, looking for information on specific topics is their typical visitor.
Let’s look at this realistically:
- Does the average Internet user know about SEO?
- Do they know the benefit of anchor text?
I’m pretty confident that for the majority, the answer to both questions is no.
Perhaps if we polled a bunch of jaded/passive-aggressive Internet marketers, they might tell us they avoid the anchor text…but for the average person, it just really doesn’t come into play.
What really causes the click through difference?
Here’s what I said to Ezine Articles in my alloted 140 characters:
I think it all comes down to a simple matter of call-to-action. Keyword-based anchor text often lacks a call-to-action. Here’s one example from Ezine Articles and I’m sure you can find many . As you see, there are keywords in a link, but no instruction to do anything:
Now, a full URL doesn’t have a call-to-action specifically in the link, but there is an implied call-to-action (i.e. here’s a website address, click the link). But more importantly, in a lot of these types of bylines, the full URL is surrounded by a call to action. Here is an example:
Sure, “Visit…” may not be the strongest call-to-action on the planet, but it does give the reader something to do and a reason to click (“to find the best deal”). I don’t presume to know how the click throughs on the above articles compare, but am just showing how each type of link is commonly presented.
What I’m Wondering
I wonder if Ezine Articles can break down their stats to give us more clues on the click through mystery. For example:
- In links with anchor text, can they distinguish between straight keyword links and those that say “click here for XXX” or “sign up for XXX“, for example.
- Is there a difference in the click through rate on articles that include a full URL and ones that include BOTH anchor text and a full URL?
That type of information could provide more insight to solve the byline clicking mystery. Obviously, there are many factors in determining the WHY people click or don’t click on any byline. Length of byline, relevancy to the content and plenty of other things my influence clicks, but one thing you can’t go wrong with is a strong call-to-action.
Because when it comes down to it, if you don’t tell your readers what to do, how can expect them to click?
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About the Author
Everybody says "Content is King", but what does that mean for you? 
John Soares says:
Good post here.
We need real data from ezinearticles. I’d like them to share exactly what they know about this.
Could it be that some article readers don’t realize that the colored anchor text is a link, whereas they nearly always recognize an actual link?
I have articles on ezinearticles, and I’ve had several published on other sites, and about a 7% CTR to my sites.
Shannon says:
I think you’re assumption is a very good one, Alice. Like you said, the average person has no idea what keyword links are for. I have also seen many examples of keywords links in bylines that are just there and they don’t have a call to action.
Alice Seba says:
Well, I did get a brief reply from @EzineArticles for further info. They said:
Anchored text links that include a “Call To Action” naturally outperform in CTR vs. the typical keyword loaded anchor text.
So…a little more info, but doesn’t really address the assumption I was question, but that might be my fault since I only put a couple things in “What I’m Wondering” in the post.
Anyway, as I replied back:
Thx! I think you can combine both strategies into a byline (keywords/clicks)…so that’s what I was trying to get at.
Angela Wills says:
Great post Alice!
I totally agree that a link with a call to action surrounding it will likely get much more clicks than simple hyperlinked texted randomly placed within a sentence.
As I was reading I was also thinking what John said. I think those of us who understand hyperlinks and anchor text are actually a rare few and most people don’t even realize that it’s not just blue text that’s underlined. Obviously some groups are going to understand that better but I never assume they do.
I have two examples for you too:
1. A friend of mine created a website for her local massage therapy business. I gave her some advice to get listed on google. She was greatful and said she’d like to give me a link on her website – but she wasn’t sure if she could. REALLY basic stuff but she didn’t really know how. Now I’m not knocking her at all but I think this is more common than the typical business owner understanding links.
2. I went for an interview at a local company that makes college programs available online locally. One of the interview questions was a multiple choice question asking what is a link that’s blue and underlined called – seriously! It was like I was taking a kindergarten test, lol.
Anyway, sorry to write a book. Just got me thinking about what a gap there is with this knowledge and the ‘offline’ world.
I suspect another reason that people like to click the URL is that they can SEE exactly where they are going. We all like to know where we are going, I think that’s human nature and if we’re just meeting someone we’re not going to hop into their car blindfolded and tell them to drive. We’re going to want to drive ourselves and know exactly where we’re going. I use both a hyperlink and a URL in my article marketing as you suggested.
Can you tell I’m passionate about article marketing. lol.
Alice Seba says:
I think you said it perfect in your second to last paragraph starting with, “I suspect…”
I wanted to say that precise thing, but couldn’t figure out the exact wording. You said it beautifully. A URL link gives clues to a visitor before they click. And sure, the savvy among us can look at the bottom of our browser window to see where we’re going, but for the average Internet user…different story.
Codrut Turcanu says:
Yes, I think EZA guys should gives us more in depth analytics data … call 2 action is king!
P.S. I’d like to see an article on how to write winning resource box call 2 actions, and maybe give 2 or 3 real-life case scenarios… what do you say?
Alice Seba says:
Hi Codrut,
It’s not exactly what you requested, but Angela wrote an article that you might find interesting:
http://contentrix.com/article-writing-basics/1122
Codrut Turcanu says:
Yeah, I appreciate that. Good tips. I still think my suggestion could turn into a great upcoming post @ Contentrix.com – what do you say?
If you accept guest authors, I could handle that topic myself…
Alice Seba says:
Thanks Codrut. We are certainly open to reviewing submissions!
Codrut Turcanu says:
Good. Will send something by Monday. Are there any guideline I could follow?
Alice Seba says:
None specifically. Good content is what we want.
Alice Seba says:
Thanks Codrut! Mel will be emailing you to let you know we posted your article, but here’s a link: http://contentrix.com/resource-box/1407
Awesome stuff!
Writing Winning Resource Box Call to Actions In 6 Minutes or Less : Contentrix – Content Marketing says:
[...] is a guest post by one of our readers, Codrut Turcanu. He wrote it in response to this post on why people don’t click your bylines and really appreciate him taking the time to share his strategies and [...]