Home » Link Color, Treatment, and Rollover Behavior
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
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Data Comparison: |
2002 |
2006 |
2007 |
2008 |
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Blue |
50% |
35% |
45% |
24% |
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Grey |
12% |
24% |
20% |
24% |
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Black |
12% |
20% |
17% |
6% |
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Green |
6% |
9% |
5% |
8% |
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Red |
13% |
4% |
4% |
1% |
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White |
0% |
4% |
0% |
3% |
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Purple |
2% |
3% |
4% |
1% |
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Brown |
5% |
1% |
0% |
4% |
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Other |
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1% |
1% |
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Inconsistent |
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3% |
28% |
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Visual Treatment
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Data Comparison: |
2002 |
2006 |
2007 |
2008 |
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Underline |
51% |
55% |
51% |
37% |
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Not-underlined |
34% |
44% |
45% |
46% |
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Other |
12% |
1% |
4% |
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Inconsistent |
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17% |
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According to 2008 data, 46% HTML text links are not underlined (ex. Gap.com)
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Rollover Behavior
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Data Comparison: |
2002 |
2006 |
2007 |
2008 |
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Change color |
15% |
49% |
29% |
21% |
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None |
68% |
29% |
35% |
23% |
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Add underline |
10% |
21% |
23% |
28% |
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Change background color |
4% |
1% |
0% |
1% |
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Add underline & change color |
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7% |
6% |
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Take away underline |
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1% |
0% |
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Inconsistent |
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1% |
21% |
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Change color and background |
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1% |