Link Color, Treatment, and Rollover Behavior

Data below is based on the primary HTML link color, treatment, and rollover behavior found in the main content section of 75 different web sites studied. In many instances we found sites that uses several different html link colors, treatment, and rollover behaviors that deciding upon one was difficult. As a group we decided to chose to use the most commonly found link treatment in the main body of the page instead of simply labelling the site as "inconsistent".

Primary HTML Link Color

  Data Comparison: 2002 2006 2007 2008
  Blue 50% 35% 45% 24%
  Grey 12% 24% 20% 24%
  Black 12% 20% 17% 6%
  Green 6% 9% 5% 8%
  Red 13% 4% 4% 1%
  White 0% 4% 0% 3%
  Purple 2% 3% 4% 1%
  Brown 5% 1% 0% 4%
  Other     1% 1%
  Inconsistent     3% 28%
           
           

Visual Treatment

  Data Comparison: 2002 2006 2007 2008
  Underline 51% 55% 51% 37%
  Not-underlined 34% 44% 45% 46%
  Other 12% 1% 4%  
  Inconsistent       17%
           
           
           

According to 2008 data, 46% HTML text links are not underlined (ex. Gap.com)

gap.com example            

Rollover Behavior

  Data Comparison: 2002 2006 2007 2008
  Change color 15% 49% 29% 21%
  None 68% 29% 35% 23%
  Add underline 10% 21% 23% 28%
  Change background color 4% 1% 0% 1%
  Add underline & change color     7% 6%
  Take away underline     1% 0%
  Inconsistent     1% 21%
  Change color and background       1%