Links are used to give users more information, details, context. They also are a way to show what is important. They could also be use to drive traffic to other parts of the same website. But abusing could have a negative effect, if your web design has too many links, like this very same article, the effects of linking would be mostly annoying. See here more Design vs Art articles about Links.
Use links, but don’t abuse.
Embedding links into your content encourages users to visit other sections of your website. Placing links into articles also gives more context and value to users.
It’s important to pay attention on the way these links are done. A common problem is that users do not understand where the link could go. On the example below, taken from News.com, it’s clear for most users that clicking on "struck licensing agreements" would link to an article about that. On the other hand, clicking on "Imeem", would take the user to the company’s website or to other news about it?
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The New York Times goes one step forward making embedded links more understandable, predictable and user friendly. As the user hover over the candidates’ names in this politics article, the link label appears telling users that they would be taken to more articles about that candidate. Using proper link labeling improves usability and avoid confusion. (Mouse arrow is not displayed).
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Making links obvious will drive users through your website. It’s very important to make links look like links. Here there is a website example:
The above screen shot was taken from the Azalea Bed & Breakfast website, there you can see three different typography styles, the normal one, bold and brown. Would you tell me which one is a link? The answer is: none! Even worse, real links do not look like real links:
I can imagine users trying to click on the brown or bold words without getting any reaction from the website. This usability topic could be more important than most of the people think, users might wait for the site but if they don’t see that something happens they might think that the site does not work. And they leave.
Try not to play much with colors on your links, if possible, make them blue and underlined.