Blog

Web Design Wednesdays


Published by: Jason Ciment 01-04-2012  |  POSTED IN: Web Design Wednesdays

Don't Make Users Retrace Their Steps: Change Visited Link Color

 

Do you ever venture somewhere and get the instant feeling you've been there before? This can happen online when we click on a website or inner page we've previously visited because nothing made it apparent we'd been there before, thus causing us frustration and eating up valuable time. And as you'll notice if you look at any of my Los Angeles website design clients' retuned sites, my team produces navigation that saves users' browsing time instead of wasting it.

Let's face it, with news, shopping, social networking, and innumerable other forms of information within fast one-click reach, our short-term memories are not what they used to be in pre-Google days. This is why adjusting the links on your site to change color for individual users once they’ve visited them can improve navigation and overall usability.

Whether you're going through the search results on Google, checking out each entry on a lengthy blogroll, or trying to determine which of many inner pages on a website addresses your specific needs, your quest is probably time-sensitive and you certainly don't want to needlessly revisit a link that was of no help in the first place. Good navigation helps users in this scenario by clarifying where they are to help get them where they want to go. Having three links that were visited a week ago show up as purple against the thirty other blue ones that weren't clicked at all brings your users back to what helped them and lets them avoid to what didn't.

There are numerous CSS strategies for adjusting your links for your visitors, but here is some basic coding for coloring revisited links.
Thanks for reading. Jason.
P.S. Don't forget to subscribe below to this blog.
 
About Jason Ciment
Formerly an attorney and CPA, Jason has been working online since 1997. His columns on affiliate marketing can still be found on www.Clickz.com and his book on search engine optimization can be found at www.seotimetable.com.

This blog is published 4x per week and covers website design and SEO tips as well as a wide range of tips and advice for working and living online more efficiently and enjoyably.
 

SUBSCRIBE TO THE LADEZIGN BLOG
Enter your email address below:

Delivered by FeedBurner

 

Value entered for e-mail is invalid
Passwords don't match
Please fill up missing fields below
Comment:
 
Enter validation code
Or click here if you can't see the code clearly.

Comments
 
 

no comments found


Let's connect.       Request a free consultation/quote for your next website design or search marketing project.           

x