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 is not 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 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.