Obviously, the design of your website is an important aspect of the success of your business. To add on to that point, the colors you choose can play a role in customer happiness and retention. According to a study by the Missouri University of Science and Technology, it takes users less than two-tenths of a second to form a first impression of a website. Additionally, a study by Stanford University found that 75% of users admitted to making judgments about a company's credibility based on the design of its website. A professional and well-designed website can instill trust in potential customers. This emphasizes the importance of a visually appealing design. But how do we know what colors work best for our website and brand?
Why Should You Care About Website Colors?
Your website's color palette forges an emotional bond between your brand and its audience. Colors are more than visual flair. They evoke feelings, convey messages, and shape your brand's personality. Understanding color psychology is a small skill within the bigger marketing picture that can give you an edge.
Additionally, your website's colors express your unique brand identity. Consistent hues promote recognition and reinforce your distinctive voice online. Your colors become visual cues, triggering associations and weaving a narrative that resonates with your audience.
Therefore, carefully choosing website colors is more than just a design preference, it's a strategic endeavor to build an enduring, positive, emotional bond between your brand and its online visitors.
Related: Pages Every Website Should Have
What Can Different Colors Mean On Your Website?
Red - This color is associated with energy, passion, anger, danger. It can raise pulse and is an attention grabber, such as a CTA button, but can overwhelm if used too much. Think Netflix, YouTube, Target.
Blue - This color is linked to trust, calmness, stability, professionalism. It can lower your heart rate and blood pressure. But on the flip side can be associated with sadness at times. Use this to relay a more relaxed and reliable message. Think home security companies, LinkedIn, PayPal.
Green - This color is connected to nature, health, wealth, renewal. It can improve focus and vision. Use this color to indicate growth and harmony. Think Whole Foods, Fidelity, Animal Planet.
Yellow - This color is tied to happiness, optimism, warmth, and at times caution. Use this color to get attention and for its energizing and friendly qualities. Think Ikea, DHL, McDonald's.
Purple - This color is associated with creativity, wisdom, spirituality, mystery. Use it to encourage imagination and nostalgia. Think Yahoo, Cadbury, SyFy.
Orange - This color represents enthusiasm, vibrancy, fun. Use this to give off a fun, friendly, and energetic tone. But don't overdo it with this color, it could be a bit too intense for full branding. Think Fanta, Nickelodeon, Dunkin'.
Black - This color is authoritative, elegant, classy with a hint of somber to it. Use it to convey power, sophistication, mystery. But as mentioned with other colors, there is a risk of overusing this and coming off as too ominous. However, there are so many timeless brands that use black logos. Think Prada, Chanel, Bentley, Sony, Polo, Gucci.
White - This color signifies simplicity, purity, clarity. Use it to portray a clean and refreshing image, with hints of openness and efficiency. Think Apple, Google, Wikipedia.
The careful use of color elicits the desired tone, look and feel of a website. Proper color choices can make sites more usable, memorable and aligned to a brand's persona.
How Does Color Affect User Experience On A Website?
Colors totally change how we feel when we're browsing a website. Brands use colors to tap into our emotions and get us in the mood they want. Take fast food joints as an example. Those bright reds, yellows, and oranges get us excited to grab a burger and fries or some chicken. Clothing shops might go for more sophisticated darks and neutrals to seem posh. White space and light blues on a bank website make us feel they're trustworthy for our money.
It's psychology! Colors influence our mood and mindset without us even realizing it. They set the tone for our whole website experience. A fun, funky color palette gets us energized and engaged, but too many weird and wacky colors and we might be turned away. A more professional one makes us feel like the brand is more legit. Smart companies know how to work the color wheel to connect with us on a deeper level. They paint their sites in just the right hues to influence what we think and feel about their brand. Pretty cool how a splash of color can work some serious magic, huh?
Final Thoughts: Choosing Website Colors
When choosing colors you are allowed to break some rules. What feels right for your brand should be a top focus. However, pairing neon yellow and pink together when you're selling roofing services might not be appealing to a customer. If you find a color you really love, look up some colors that are complimentary to that one and build around it. Don't be afraid to be unique, but keep your website user friendly above all.
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