There are right and wrong ways of using links in web design. Using them the right way ensures easy navigation with no surprises or confusion. Using them the wrong way will annoy your audience and at worst send them away. A website is all about keeping visitors engaged while they are with you. Attracting them in the first place is a whole other science. Putting as few barriers between them and your products is the best way to convert visitors into customers.

On the internet it is automatically assumed that anything underlined is a link. If you underline things and they aren’t links, you could be creating confusion for your audience. If text needs emphasizing use italics or bold or even a different color. When linking to something it is much safer to stick to convention and make them blue and underlined. This is what the audience expects, so it pays to give it to them. Almost all websites use this method, trying something new or different is only going to confuse people. While design is all about pushing boundaries and limits, there are certain things you don’t mess with. Links are one of them.

It always helps if you explain to the reader what you are linking to. Spend at least a sentence or two explaining where the link will send them, and maybe why. Depending on the site, and the context it may not always be appropriate, but always try to tell the visitor where you are sending them. After all, they may not want to go. Use descriptive link text too, it adds to the information provided to the reader. Don’t be tempted to just say “link” or “here”, that’s just plain lazy.

For example: “Check out our special offers, hot sellers and new products”

as opposed to; “Check out our special offers here, hot sellers here and new products here.”

As you can see in this rather crude example, the first one reads much better than the second. Most readers merely scan the page rather than read every single word. Using non descriptive words interrupts the flow of the page and forces the reader to re-read the sentence to understand what’s going on.

When using internal links within a site, don’t have them open in a new window. Even with the advent of tabbed browsing, that still annoys a visitor. Not everyone is as web savvy as us, or can handle as many tabs as we can. Navigation buttons work well, allow the visitor to use them.

Use a separate window or tab for external links at all times because it allows for the user to quickly come back to your site. The external site is separate, so it’s fine to link to that in a new window.

Linking is what makes the internet work. It is the reason that minutes on the web can turn into hours as we travel seemingly randomly following links across the world. It works because there are rules, and for the most part those rules are obeyed. Ensure any designs you produce follow these rules, and allow your visitors to enjoy the web as much as we do.

Using Links in Web Design is a post from: Fort Myers Web Design