Don't make your customers think: use blue hyperlinks

Personally, I have always felt that when you choose your sites color scheme, the rule of thumb is to use blue hyperlinks. This is because blue hyperlinks have the highest click through rates. People are conditioned to recognize blue text as a hyperlink – there is no thinking involved, the recognition is immediate.

As Steve Krug said in his famous book - don’t make your customer’s think! While black hyperlinks are as widely recognized as blue hyperlinks – black hyperlinks take a few moments longer to recognize. Whether it is a split second, or several moments: any extra thinking you demand of your customer makes them less likely to trust you. Since lack of trust is a leading reason preventing online purchases, the answer is simple. Don’t make your customer’s think! Use underlined blue hyperlinks.