Its very poor practice to use the text like “Click here” as links. Some browsers, particularly some for disabled users, provide a summary of links throughout a page. If this practice were to be adopted throughout a page, a list of links like this would be presented to the user:

• Click here
• Open this
• Here
• Download

Out of context none of these links make sense nor provide any indication of where they go!

When creating a link, first check that the words sufficiently describe where the user should expect to be taken. So avoid using phrases like “click here”, and in a lot of cases, linking just one word probably wouldn’t be descriptive enough either.

Other common indescriptive links used are “Document” “Publiction”, “Form”. When taken out of context you have no idea where this link goes, and you’re left with so many questions e.g. Which form? Which publication?

Usability studies have shown people quickly scan pages rather than reading them in full. Because links stand out, by linking the appropriate text rather then indescriptive phrases people are likely to find the information they are looking for a lot quicker. Otherwise they’ll give up a visit a website which is easier to navigate…

There are a few of options with how you can use email addresses as a prominent contact method on your website.  These are:

1. You use one account for a service/business area to check and manage.
2. You use multiple accounts for, one for each specific service/function.
3. You can use personal email accounts.

Personal email accounts can easily be ruled out as being unsuitable for majority of situations. When an individual leaves a business unit or is on leave someone else needs receive their emails for specific functions/services. In situations like this it can be quite difficult to update material containing references to old email addresses, and advise people who they need to contact in the future.

The benefits of using generic email addresses are that you should never need to advise your clients of staffing changes and consequently new contact information. Additionally multiple people can usually access the same email generic email account to share the work load. And as new people come on board, and old ones leave, you can easily update who can access these accounts.

The benefits of generic addresses for each individual service are:

• the address can usually be clearly labeled with its purpose eg. Sales could become sales@yourcompany.com
• the address exists independently of the business area responsible for it. Because of this, organisational changes can be easily managed.  Transferring ownership is as simple as granting and revoking access to people checking the email account.

The benefits of using an email address for each a business area:

• staff only need to log in and check the one email account on a daily basis, rather than several (for each service).
• managing access to these emails only needs to be done on the one account, not several.

However there are draw backs to both of these solutions which need to be assessed before deciding which path to follow.

Ultimately a well thought out combination of these two options would be recommended. In majority of situations, larger services would be best suited to having their own account. They are more likely to be widely advertised and used, and because they are not tied to a specific business area, organisational changes can be easily handled. Smaller services however would be more suited to sharing a generic business area email address. This is more efficient by avoiding checking say 10 accounts daily only to find 1 email.

Generic accounts receiving only small amounts of emails are also more likely to be forgotten about! Particularly with the turn over of staff… And repeatedly unanswered emails won’t look good for you! So cautiously plan the use of generic emails limiting the number required whenever appropriate!

There is no legal requirement for any website to obtain permission to link to another.

There have however been a number of court cases surround hyper linking on the internet. Particularly surrounding the practice of ‘deep linking’ (linking to a page on a site deeper than its homepage). Although it has been very rare that court found in favour of the plaintiff.

There are some legal issues relevant to linking which we should each consider before creating a link. These include:

• intellectual property
• misrepresentation
• misleading or deceptive conduct under trade practice
• defamation
• endorsement or commercial advantage
• results in commercial loss
• circumventing acceptance of terms and conditions

Some companies may have internal policies requiring they request permission before linking. But the effort involved in this would quickly add up! I think that familiarity with potential issues, using common sense, and assessing any potential risks is adequate.

Please note: The above is only my personal opinion and understanding and does not constitute for legal advice. I’d recommend consulting with a lawyer in your jurisdiction for more accurate and better informed information.