🔥 Increase your blogs traffic in just 28 days. Click Here Now.
Have you ever wondered if link color makes a difference in conversion and engagement with your site?
As your resident sad act, I have!
Earlier in the month, I took a look at if it’s better to have your sidebar on the testing logo designs makes a difference.
But what about link color?
What Will I Learn?
I’m not going to bore you with the ins and outs of color theory, although it is an interesting topic.
But take a quick look at how these brands apply color-
Color can have a huge impact on behaviour, and as such, it directly influences conversion.
This was seen when I changed the color of a button to increase profits.
As a general rule of thumb, any calls to action should stand out from the rest of the page.
If you have a white/blue design – your calls to action should be red so they attract attention.
Things that stand out get noticed. People click on things that stand out.
When I set up the blog, I changed the color of the links to pink and headers to blue.
This was so the links stand out from everything else on the page, as I explained above.
So the blog was already optimised to some degree in that respect, but can I take it further?
I changed the color of all links within blog post content. Link colors in the sidebar etc, were not changed.
There were 3 possibilities-
The test ran from May 31st – June 12th and saw a total of 7,845 unique visitors between the 3 variations.
I decided to look at how the change in link color affected key metrics such as-
I also decided to segment the data in 2 ways-
You can click on any of the images below to get the full versions.
So first of all let’s take a look at how it affected all visitors.
Bounce rate, visit duration & pages per visit are up first-
And then conversion…
Let’s break it down in table format to make it a bit easier to read, digest & compare.
| Link Color | Pages/Visit | Visit Duration | Bounce Rate | Goal Conversion |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pink | 2.65 | 00:05:53 | 47.82% | 9.32% |
| Blue | 2.65 | 00:06:05 | 47.44% | 10.22% |
| Red | 2.51 | 00:05:41 | 49.61% | 9.84% |
The blue links delivered the longest visit duration, lowest bounce rate and highest goal conversion.
Seems like Microsoft did a good job of subliminally training us over the years with the classic blue link color.
Interestingly the red links performed pretty poorly but stood out the most against the blue/pink theme of the site. More on why that is later.
Perhaps visitors that haven’t seen the site before will behave differently.
Bounce rate, visit duration & pages per visit are up first-
And then conversion…
Let’s break it down in table format to make it a bit easier to read, digest & compare.
| Link Color | Pages/Visit | Visit Duration | Bounce Rate | Goal Conversion |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pink | 2.23 | 00:03:45 | 53.13% | 8.09% |
| Blue | 2.14 | 00:03:41 | 53.55% | 8.85% |
| Red | 2.23 | 00:04:00 | 52.57% | 9.56% |
When we look at just new visitors, things are very different.
This time the red links are the best performing in terms of visit duration, bounce rate and goal conversion.
The pink and blue links perform at similar rates, with the blue links edging forward on goal conversion.
But why did this happen?
When both new and returning visitors were shown red links it had a negative impact when compared with the pink links.
But when just new visitors were shown red links, it had a positive impact.
Why though?
I believe this is because my returning visitors are-
The red links were also pretty ugly, and I felt like they decreased readability, so this was a ‘step back’ for my loyal readers.
My regular readers are already ‘trained’ to click pink links-
However, they couldn’t overcome the subliminal blue link color that Microsoft has trained us to click on over the years.
The blue link text color actually blended into the branding of the site better than the red links while still standing out as clear calls to action
New visitors behaved differently because they didn’t have the pre-conceived familiarity with the site and we’re seeing it fresh for the first time.
They didn’t have a benchmark of design or readability to fall back on like returning visitors.
At the start of this post, I said that “points of conversion should stand out like a sore thumb” and the red links certainly did that.
They were upfront and in your face to the point of distraction but this wasn’t a step back for new visitors as it was their first step.
So how on earth am I meant to pick a default link color winner?
Based on the data the logical thing to do is show new visitors red links and returning visitors the blue link color.
But that doesn’t seem very practical and will lead to user confusion long term.
So that has me wondering…. Is it possible to reprogram my loyal readers to show the red links some love?
If I just forced the change on you guys you would have no choice, and over time you would be ‘retrained’.
That’s what Facebook do when they want to change things up, right? Although that always goes down like a knackered lift for a few days.
What color do you think the links should be? Answers in the comments, please – your feedback decides this one!
89 Responses
Join My Facebook Group
I haven’t even given the color of your links a single thought. I’m used to click blue links as most sites use. But still it was no problem to see that your colors were links.Might be an idea to chech tis out myself along the way. Thanks for the article.
Perform some split tests and see what works with your audience.
Good to know
Interesting experiment.
This Very Helpful Article, Thank You So Much
No problem at all 🙂
Hi, i read this article nice, color hints is also nice
Hope the results gave you an insight 🙂
Sounds good!
I’ll try it out and give you a shout back on what happens, Matthew.
Hi Matthew. What an extremely good and informative read.I’ve always used the colour blue for my links, but I just might give pink a shot after your research, and see what happens.Many thanks,James
Hey James, only one way to find out!
Do you think orange links would do well?
Why rely on opinion when you can get data?
Hey Matt,Thanks for the great write-up, I tried this once for my landing page, and you are right, red color work like a charm and the conversion is too good because they are all new visitors.But, for a long term blog, i think we should use pink color because which is what I can see on your blog 😉
But was it because it was red, or because it stood out the most on the page?
Just came across this article which is pretty inline to what I was testing on one of my blogs. And I found that blue colored links are clicked73% more than the ones without any color.Although your tests were quite extensive than mine. I just tested one color. Anyways I always pick gold nuggets from your articles. And the thing I love the most about your posts is that they are updated on regular basis, no matter how old the post is. Which is quite rare in our industry.
Thanks Dru – glad you found it useful and conducted your own tests as well 🙂
Great Article about the link colour should be!!! before the read, I never considered link colour but I used to give the light blue colour to my Post links just because it highlights a phrase or combination phrase perfectly, Now I am getting know-how link Colour affects on clicks rate. Thanks Matthew for your Nice Concern.
Basically, as long as the link colour stands out and doesn’t blend in with other colours on your site – you are good!
I like blue links but I’m old school guy. I’m trying different colour of links, especially in WordPress articles and also trying to find out which works best. The other matter is interesting here though – backgrounds. Have you tried also with different text backgrounds? That would be interesting.
No I haven’t played with backgrounds myself because I think it looks spammy on text but that is just an opinion 🙂
Guess you stayed with pink then; love to know why?
I decided to keep it on brand!
red links all the way!
Unless your site is red
Matt, this is the first article of yours I have ever read — found it after Goolging “hyperlink colour”. Great study, great data, great write-up, great rationale. You have just converted a new visitor to a repeat one.
That is great to hear Michael thank you for your readership!
Blue links because – blue is seen as dependable?Is it possible to have orange links?
Blue because thats what colour links have been since the dawn of internet explorer.You can have any colour you want
This is an awesome case study, but I really think you’re running it in the wrong niche. I would be more interested to see how a “regular” Internet user reacts to the different color links (someone shopping for a nice Christmas scarf or something). I would almost bet money that the classic blue link would perform better with a different audience. Your audience of savvy IMers is probably not a good representation of the typical user. Oh, and gingers have no soul.
Hi,Yes I agree and would love to run it in another soon 🙂
Very helpful information and makes me feel good as I have always used blue for link color, now I know why. Will be lookingfor more from you it seems you have some good knowledge on these matters. Thanks
Thanks 🙂
Mr. Woodward. You have this down to a science. Great post. Keep’em coming.
Thanks Mike 🙂
Great feedback and a nice observation – its just a matter of time 🙂
Yes, of course. Humans are experts in habituation. Think of all other well-known web-projects. How often they have changed not only colors but the complete design and layout.This happened to fiverr lately, I still cannot accept the new design 🙂 As you see it takes time…
Hahaha – it does actually mean something though ^^
That sentence feels like it needs to be read in a Norfolk accent
I dont know you know but I do know that you dont know you know.Try saying that as fast as you can
They should be…
lol
Monday mornings are always busy though right 😛
Haha thanks
Another great case study! It’s interesting to find how the pink and blue links have a diff. impact on diff. visitors (such as new and returning). I’m actually about to run a split test between a plan white background on one of my blogs, and a background image. I’ll be tracking the same metrics as you did.
Sounds good let me know how it goes! Interesting test!
Hi Matthew,I’m rather new to split testing so your articles have helped me understand more how it’s done. I came across something called “statistically significant” which, to my understanding, help to decide whether we can make conclusive decision based on the result.I’m using the calculator provided by Visual Website Optimizer at http://visualwebsiteoptimizer.com/ab-split-significance-calculator/I don’t see the actual number of visitors from the screenshots so I calculate based on ‘Goal Completion’ and ‘Goal Conversion Rate’. For example for new visitors, the original colour has 168 conversions at 8.09%, which means you have around 2076 visitors who saw the pink links.If I plug the numbers into the calculator, the result comes out as NOT statistically significant.Is this the right way of interpreting the result?
Hi,I haven’t used that tool but there were enough visitors exposed to each test to make a decision. Generally a test of 1,000 visitors per variation is enough to give an indication.
Matthew, you are priceless (and brilliant!)
Thanks so much for sharing all this info. So much to learn about about my “new online biz”
Good luck with your ventures =D
Again – great report! I was waiting for this post – I had noticed your links changing colors…knew something was coming!I also like that “Color Emotion Guide” – I had never seen anything like that before. Good stuff to know!
I didn’t go into the depths of colour theory in the post but check it out, its a very interesting subject!
I see from the diagram at the top that Hooters are in orange, so that’s good enough for me!
Gingers tend to be the best 😛
Pink, pink, but only for women related sites. :-p
Hahahaha I think the pink my site is rather fetching if I’m honest!
Well the returning visitors already know the value of their site so I don’t think a color change will harm them so much. We will get used to it.So do what the conversions say it’s the best for you. In the end everybody will get use it, and you’ll have less new visitors to retrain if you decide to do it later.the sooner the better I suppose ^^that’s my opinion,good luck
Great feedback – taken on board thank you =D
I really like the pink links. With the blue headers and white background I think it stands out without being too much of an eyesore. Red would probably decrease readability for me, and blue is just downright unoriginal :)Being that you even supplement your link text color with an underline, I don’t think you have anything to worry about.And I fear change!!! No change!!! BAD AAHHH!!
Good points and what you say about underlining is probably true – I think this is something we are all ‘trained’ to look for with a link
I’m ALL for blue though… all shades of.. Always outperformed in my tests – as trust is a BIG item in the equation of persuasion…I know there are other arenas where pink would be Queen-of-the-Hill though… heh… go figure!Cheers, Steve ✉ Master eMailSmith ✉ LorenzoChief Editor, eMail Tips Daily Newsletter
Hi,Have you found that to be the case across different niches/audience types?
I found myself wasting 10 minutes just looking at your color emotion guide (which should be colour, your on a .co.UK remember) anyways the moral of this story is:PRETTY COLOURS!
My grammar/spelling isn’t great at the best of times – you’ll also see me make mistakes with been and being on a regular basis 🙂
How do you set up these test…it would be great if you can show how to set it up in analytics. I believe it would make a great tutorial too.
Hi,Please see https://searchlogistics.com/conversion/logo-testing/
I think you should use red if it works best for new visitors.Red may not work better with the ‘regulars’ but as you say it is something that people will get used to and as long as you are still providing the quality content then it certainly won’t steer people away from clicking I wouldn’t imagine!Another great ready by the way Matt!
Hi,Thanks very much – so basically fuck em and do what I want huh 😛
I did, but I keep having to come back here and drop comments.
Hi,great post really. It’s interesting that red always outperforms in terms of conversions. To my mind: Use Red! Why? Because over time your “old” visitors will get used to it and the new visitors will show higher conversions anyway. Think long-term, in the beginning you would lose some $, but I would say that after a certain period of time everyone will love red. The question is: When 🙂
Hi,I wouldn’t say it ‘always’ outperforms but as a rule of thumb its a performance colour – still needs to be tested though.So you think I can retrain my visitors 🙂
Haven’t you got work to do? ^^
Rude.:-)
Wow. This is pretty impressive. Very nice read.
Cheers Vinny!
Interesting stuff. I guess there are endless combinations you could try: underline, hover styles, etcIs there a way to determine if a user is new or not and then show them links/content in a different way?Great case study though, keep them coming!
Yeah you could place a cookie and load a different stlyesheet based on that.
Woodward! Stop distracting me from work with your compelling content
Shut up and read it 😛
For me Pink is nice, not ugly and not aggressive,blue for me can mean this is again some spam link or something wastefull
Your site uses blue links 😛
Oh Matt you have far too much time on your hands :)I like the default blue links, i think that most people (Well in the UK anyway) know that when text is in blue its a link.Maybe you should throw putting the link in bold, italic and underlined into the test :-p
Hahaha I dont have time on my hands – thats why its critical to build a finely tuned conversion machine ^^