What Does the Color of your Website Say About You?

Brilliant reds, deep blues, and electric greens: What message are the colors of your website sending to your readers?
Sarcoline, coquielicot, smaragdine, mikado, wenge- confused yet? How about arsenic or bazaar? These are all colors your website might be sporting. You probably know them as red, yellow, green. If you’re of a crafty sort, you might know them as avocado, egg shell, or ruby.
What you might not know is that the colors of your website can have a profound effect on your customers.
Historically, big brands have always made big deals of their colors. We can all identify Tiffany & Co. from their trademark robin’s egg blue and can spot the golden arches from a mile away. Many companies have gone as far as to trademark their color. Try to use John Deere green, Target red or UPS brown on your own website and you’re looking at a lawsuit.
But the impact of color goes beyond brand identity. A study by consumer intelligence company KISSmetrics discovered that colors can actually affect your customers’ buying behaviour. They discovered that red encouraged impulse buying, that navy blue and teal encouraged budget-mindedness, and that purple and greens attracted women.
With this in mind, here are a few tips for getting the color of your website right for your business goals…
Keep it simple
Start off with a few basic colors and build most of your site with them. In order to make website content easy to read it’s important to use basic color contrast like black and white or white and gray. Color combos like red and yellow have been shown to turn people away.
Know your market
Think of the demographics you want your site to target. Older generations appreciate natural tones while the younger crowds enjoy bright colors and striking contrasts. When dealing in a global market, be aware that different colors mean different things, for example green doesn’t mean wealth to a country with a pink currency.
Be unique
Don’t be afraid to test the waters when choosing colors. Nobody wants to be confused with another business with a similar color structure. Find a color that really represents what you are trying to portray and build your site around it.
If you still aren’t quite sure which colors are right for you, try finding a painting or an image that you really enjoy. There are color palette generators available like Pictaculous or Photocopa, where you can upload an image and the site will pull the colors out for you to use. Alternatively, have a peruse of the website templates on Midphase’s website. On the website builder page, you can try a few web templates on for size.