Color Psychology: 6 Tips for Choosing Your Website Color Scheme

3. Use contrasting colors, but stay away from anything too jarring.

Contrasting colors are good when they’re not extreme. You don’t want to mix bright green with bright red. Instead, use subtle shades and tones of the same color, or complimentary colors to enrich your website’s design.

4. Make sure website text is readable.

Avoid light text on a dark background, or patterns behind text. Viewers have to be able to easily read what is being presented to them. Having a swirling pattern as a background with a light text color is hard to read and will discourage people from staying on your site.

5. Visually emphasize calls to action to increase conversions.

Nothing works better than having a white background and a green call-to-action button to guide users to where you want them to click. Color directs focus and can get visitors to respond.

6. Limit your colors.

Don’t use an entire rainbow or make the colors distracting, rather than useful: Too many colors distract attention away from what you want the viewer to see or will inadvertently hide something. Choosing colors judiciously, and taking a less-is-more approach will be the best strategy for your site.

Just as you decide on whether to wear a bright red dress or a slinky black one to a cocktail party, you’ll need to narrow down the appropriate colors for your website. Creativity is fine, but stay within the bounds of your company’s objectives and personality when you work on your web design. If you want to have a higher conversion rate, know your audience and use colors wisely.

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Emily Miller is a marketing professional and small business blogger who contributes regularly to Professional Intern. Her educational background is in Marketing and Small Business Management. She is fascinated by how technology can be used as solutions for startups and small companies.