Using mouseovers on your website show movements in elements when you place your mouse pointer over it. A common example is a menu option. Take this website for example. Look at the left hand navigation menu. Take your mouse pointer to point at any one category and you will notice the text glow. This is what a mouseover is.

They don’t really benefit you in search optimization, but are very useful for your human visitor. Its use highlights the important areas of your website that attract a visitor’s attention.

This function is quite common nowadays and is standard in most HTML Editors available today. You can create your own effects with simple point and click technology. No need to learn complicated code.

As a general rule, mouseovers on your website should:

• Highlight quality areas



• Point out outgoing links (whether internal to your site or external)



• Guide your website visitor to sections of your website you want them to see

The use of mouseovers on your website should not be abused. If you overdo this, you will end up annoying your visitor and distracting their attention away from the important message in your website.

It’s a good idea to keep your mouseovers subtle and to test them as soon as you implement them. Make sure they are functioning as you want them to.

What Not To Do

Be careful of two things when using mouseovers. First, make sure your intended highlighted text remains highlighted as long as your visitor’s mouse is on top of the text.

Website user researches have show that users get really annoyed and loose focus when the mouseover effect vanishes while their mouse pointer is still on the initially highlighted area. Again, test before going live.

Second, make sure there is absolutely no lag (even a split second) between when the mouse pointer hits the text and when the text elements change to reflect the mouseover effect. This too is a big pet peeve among Internet users.

All in all, the use of mouseovers can be very effective if done right. Be careful not to overdo it and keep the two things not to do in mind and you will benefit your user’s web browsing experience significantly.