Visuals play a crucial role in website design. Whether you’re starting from scratch or revamping your site’s color palette, this guide will help you make the right choice.
Color is a cornerstone of branding. Have you noticed how fast-food chains often use red and yellow in their logos? These colors evoke hunger and warmth. Similarly, choosing a color palette for your website requires asking one key question:
What message do you want your brand to convey?
In this article, we are going to answer this question and provide you with the right response to the question. By the end of this article, you will be able to understand the right website color scheme and the mobile-friendly color palettes that will help you build an effective website with the highest conversion.
Why Website Colors Matter
Colors are more than just visual elements; they’re a powerful tool in web design that can evoke emotions and influence behavior. Color psychology reveals that 85% of consumers say color significantly impacts their purchasing decisions.
For instance, when Beamax, a projection screen company, tested button colors, they observed a staggering 53.1% increase in clicks on red links compared to blue ones. Similarly, Coca-Cola’s iconic red branding boosts instant recognition, with studies showing that colors improve brand recognition by an average of 80%.
However, this doesn’t mean red is always the answer. A red call-to-action button won’t stand out on a predominantly red website. The key lies in creating a cohesive color palette while applying concepts like asymmetrical balance and contrast to highlight critical elements effectively.
Choosing the right color strategy ensures your site captures attention and communicates your brand message seamlessly.
How to Choose a Color Palette for Your Website
Selecting the right color palette for your website starts with understanding your brand and what you’re offering. Colors carry distinct associations and can shape the perception of your business. For example:
- Black conveys elegance, sophistication, and high quality, making it ideal for luxury brands.
- Orange radiates fun, energy, and joy, perfect for brands focusing on playfulness or creativity.
- Blue symbolizes trust, security, and reliability, which is why it’s favored by tech and financial companies like Facebook or big banks.
It’s essential to consider your audience and how colors resonate with them. Colors carry environmental, psychological, and cultural significance. For instance, emerald green evokes nature, while green also represents money and prosperity in many societies. These subtle associations can influence how visitors perceive your website and brand.
Ultimately, choose a palette that aligns with your brand’s identity and speaks to the emotions you want to evoke in your audience.
Choose a Primary Color: Understanding What Colors Represent
The colors you choose for your brand tell a story about its personality and values. Selecting one or two primary colors that align with your business’s vibe is crucial. Here’s a breakdown of popular colors and how they resonate:
Red
Brands: Coca-Cola, Nintendo
Emotions: Energy, urgency, passion, love
Best for: Food, sports, energy drinks, emergency services, marketing
Digital Impact: Draws attention and creates urgency
Yellow
Brands: McDonald’s, IKEA
Emotions: Happiness, optimism, creativity, playfulness
Best for: Kid’s products, junk food, creative portfolios, cartoons
Digital Impact: Energizes with bright yellows; calms with softer shades
Green
Brands: Whole Foods, Animal Planet
Emotions: Freshness, nature, wealth, sustainability
Best for: Organic produce, medicine, travel, environment, Shopify
Digital Impact: Conveys trust and new beginnings
Orange
Brands: Nickelodeon, Fanta
Emotions: Warmth, ambition, enthusiasm
Best for: Entertainment, soft drinks, cartoons, chocolates
Digital Impact: Radiates energy and friendliness
Blue
Brands: Walmart, American Express
Emotions: Dependability, loyalty, wisdom
Best for: Tech, banks, social media, information sites, toothpaste
Digital Impact: Inspires trust and reassures visitors
Purple
Brands: Cadbury, Hallmark
Emotions: Royalty, sophistication, spirituality
Best for: Chocolate, spiritual blogs, luxury services, Twitch
Digital Impact: Exudes quality and mystique
Brown
Brands: Nespresso, M&M’s
Emotions: Earthy, honest, comforting
Best for: Chocolate, coffee, delivery services, organic products
Digital Impact: Suggests reliability and approachability
Black
Brands: Chanel, Adidas
Emotions: Power, elegance, authority
Best for: Luxury items, high-end tech, fashion
Digital Impact: Represents timeless sophistication
White
Brands: Apple, Nike
Emotions: Simplicity, purity, spaciousness
Best for: High-tech, doctors, cars, fashion
Digital Impact: Sleek, user-friendly, and minimalistic
Pick a color that aligns with your brand’s personality and evokes the emotions you want your customers to associate with your business.
Also Read, Investing in a Custom Website: Key Reasons to Consider
Choose Your Additional Colors
Once you’ve settled on a primary color, the next step is selecting complementary colors to enhance your design. Complementary colors are opposites on the color wheel and create strong visual contrast, making key elements “pop.”
For example, a red circle stands out on a green background more than on blue.
Similarly, a blue element contrasts vibrantly with an orange backdrop. If your site is predominantly one color (e.g., green), use its complementary shade (red) for calls to action or important highlights. This helps guide the user’s attention without overwhelming them.
Tips for Building a Balanced Palette
Limit Your Palette
Stick to one or two additional colors beyond your primary shade to avoid a cluttered appearance. While you can use four to five colors in total, more than this can make your website look chaotic.
Use Extras Wisely
Additional colors may be needed for elements like icons, promotional graphics, or subtle details. Choose these sparingly and ensure they align with the overall design.
Leverage the Color Wheel
Complementary Colors: Found opposite each other (e.g., blue and orange, red and green).
Primary Colors: The base colors—red, blue, and yellow—form the foundation for creating harmonious palettes.
By carefully balancing your colors, you can craft a visually appealing and user-friendly website that highlights important elements while maintaining a cohesive brand image.
Choose a Background Color
Your website’s background color plays a key role in setting the tone for your design and brand. Since the background occupies the most space, the choice needs careful consideration to ensure it complements your content and enhances readability.
Tips for Selecting a Background Color
You can use the following tips to choose the right background color for your website. This will help you balance out the odd impact and provide your visitors with a pleasing approach on your website.
Muted Version of Your Primary Color
Use a softer shade of your brand’s primary color to maintain visual consistency.
To ensure readability, apply a white or grey overlay to create subtle contrast for text and elements.
Neutral Tones
Off-white, beige, or light greys are safe and versatile choices that work well with almost any design.
These colors are inoffensive and allow text, images, and links to stand out without distractions.
Consider the Brand Vibe
A bold background can convey energy or creativity but should be balanced with simple and legible text. Lighter, neutral backgrounds often convey professionalism and are ideal for clean, modern websites.
Ultimately, the background should support your content without overwhelming it, ensuring your site is visually appealing and easy to navigate.
Tools to Help You Pick a Color Palette
If you’re looking for an easy, quick, and free tool to help you pick the perfect color palette, Coolors is highly recommended. This tool allows you to input a hex code of a color you like, and then with a click of the space bar, it generates a variety of complementary colors. You can either lock in a color and get suggestions for others, or let Coolors generate an entirely new palette.
Tips while choosing the right color palette
- Start by selecting one or two core colors that best represent your brand.
- Use Coolors to find additional complementary colors that will enhance your overall palette.
- Make sure to save the hex codes of your selected colors. This will come in handy when you’re designing your website or creating promotional materials.
Another helpful tool is Color Safe, which enables you to browse and generate color combinations based on accessibility and type, making it easier to find colors that work well together. Both tools can assist you in building a professional and cohesive color palette for your website.
Tips for Choosing Website Colors
Now that you have a general idea of your website’s color scheme, here are some additional tips to refine your choices and create a cohesive design:
Use Consistent Saturation
To strengthen your brand, aim to use colors with similar saturation levels. Saturation refers to the brightness or intensity of a color. When different colors share a consistent saturation, they blend harmoniously. For example, Innocent, the drink company, uses a variety of colors, but each one is muted to a similar level of brightness, ensuring a cohesive look that doesn’t feel jarring or disjointed.
Vary Saturation of the Same Color
If your brand is strongly associated with a particular color, you can still create visual interest by varying its saturation. By using lighter or darker shades of your primary color, you can avoid a monotonous look while maintaining brand identity. This adds dynamism to the page, reinforcing the brand’s association with the color green while still keeping the design visually engaging.
By balancing these strategies, you can create a color palette that is both consistent and visually appealing for your website.
Also Read, How Landing Page Development Impacts Your Website’s Success
Conclusion
When choosing colors for your website, whether for a new design or a redesign, it’s important to follow a structured process. Start by selecting a primary color that aligns with the energy and message of your product or service, as this will form the core of your brand identity.
Once you’ve picked your primary color, choose one or two additional colors that complement it, enhancing the primary color and helping it stand out. Next, select a background color that’s more neutral or muted to ensure it doesn’t overpower your primary and additional colors; common choices include white, beige, or light grey.
For the text, avoid using solid black, as it can be too harsh—opt for dark greys or softer tones that improve readability. Finally, take advantage of online tools like to find the perfect color combinations and ensure your palette is cohesive and effective. By thoughtfully considering these elements, you can create a website design that is visually appealing, functional, and aligned with your brand’s goals.
We at Virtual Oplossing have a professional team of graphic and web designers who will create the right balance on your website depending on your brand design. Contact us today for all your graphic requirements.