Avoid Within-Page Links
Source Article: http://www.useit.com/alertbox/within_page_links.html
Users have a clear mental model of what will happen when they click a link. Ninety-nine percent of the links they click do relatively the same thing. This builds an expectation. For instance, if a user clicks on a basic hyperlink, that page will disappear and a new page will begin to load in its place. That page will load from the top down. If the user decides to return to the last page, they can click the back button.
People don't like it when things don't go how they're expected to. If a within-page link is clicked, the old page stays there. It scrolls to the desired location but still appears to have "jumped" somewhere. Clicking back will only return them to the same page they are already on. This can leave even the more experienced users wondering where they are. Less experienced web users can find themselves clicking back and forward repeatedly trying to find their way home. By this point, the user has exhausted far to much time and has lost a great deal of trust in the website.
To maintain the trust of the user and their confidence in navigation, I will avoid within-page links. In the event that such a link is absolutely necessary, I will give users a clear warning that the page is about to scroll.
