By Katherine Andes
Reading a web sales page can be much more confusing than reading a paper letter you receive by snail mail.
When you receive a direct mail piece, if a sentence is in color or underlined, you don’t touch it to see if you can click on it.
But that’s just what you do when you read colored or underlined text on a
web sales page. With a mouse, you “touch” the colored or underlined text to
see if there’s a link to further information.
So it’s best not to use colored fonts or underlines, if the text isn’t a link.
Sometimes, though, color or underlining is needed to break up the monotony
of a web page. In that case, you just need to be aware of the problem and
use the colors and underlining sparingly.
For example, you strongly feel you need to change the color of a text font for
emphasis. That’s fine. Just know that your visitor might pause in her reading
and move her mouse over it to see if it’s a link.
If it’s not a link, is the pause worth the change of color?
With respect to design issues: If you do use a color for your headlines, then
don’t use that same color for your links. Blue used to be the default and
preferred color for links. But visitors have become accustomed to other
colors, so they are fine to use.
Just make sure you use an exclusive color for links. If your link color
is purple then don’t use purple for any other text on your site.
Generally, try to use bold or italics in lieu of underlined text.
Easy Furniture Web Tip 80: When text isn’t clickable, avoid using
colored fonts and underlines on web sales pages. Also be exclusive
with your link colors.
Katherine Andes is a consultant who specializes in Internet copywriting for websites and search engine optimization (SEO) — especially in the home
improvement market. You can phone her at 559.589.0379 or email at
Kathy@AndesAndAssociates.com.