Links - Do them properly!

Many designers have started to put dotted lines underneath their links or remove it completely. This is confusing for the average surfer.

Most people on the Web today do not read text blocks. They just scan pages for subheadings and links. Well written subheadings and links enable your readers to find detailed information quickly. But if you remove the solid line underneath the link, many user will not understand nor see that there is a link there.

Here are my top tips for styling and writing links

• Keep the solid underline. It's a standard and a quite good one too.
• Don't use dotted underlines. They have other purposes and mixing them might just confuse your readers.
• Use text that makes sense when read out of context. For example, avoid click here.
• Add a title description to each link with additional information on what the linked site contains. Keep it down to one sentence.
• Your links and text should have a distinguishable color contrast from the rest of your text. Underlining is not always good enough.
• Don't open links in a news window! Not even external ones! instead: add a little sign or graphic; indicating that it's an external resource.

When it comes to linked headings, I personally like to remove the solid underline, but keeping the color contrast. Why? Well, headings should be easy to spot when readers scan your site. So having the underline might make it harder for the reader to scan your content and she might just decide to drop your site completely.

W3C has some tips as well.