Picking Your Website Colors

If you have your own website or blog one thing you will need to think about is the colors you are going to use in its design. The importance of a site’s color scheme is often overlooked and underestimated as far as its impact on a website’s success. Therefore be sure to put much thought into this aspect of your website or blog’s design. Picking the right colors to use in your website design can have more of an impact than you might think.

Have you ever been to a website or blog and saw the colors the owner of that site has chosen to use and asked yourself “What is this person thinking?”. Chances are you have come across a site or two while browsing the internet and had a thought like that or one similar. Well, the person who owns that site probably doesn’t see it the same way you do.

In fact they might think it’s a beautiful site. Now, you wouldn’t want other people to see you website or blog and ask themselves a similar question. This is one reason why much thought has to be put into your color choices for your site.

The first thing you need to do is pick the colors that are the website or blog’s main colors. Try to do two or maybe three colors as more colors can get too gaudy. There are exceptions but as a general rule two to three colors as the site’s main colors seem to work best in most cases. If you already have a logo for your site then it is a good idea to use colors that it uses or colors that work well with that logo to keep a more consistent look throughout your site. Next you should pick an additional color as an accent color that works well with the main colors you have chosen. Whichever colors you choose try to make sure the compliment each other.

Another thing to think about when considering the colors you will be using for your site is the overall “Feel” of the site that you want to convey. If you want your site to convey an energetic or happy feeling then warm colors tend to do just that.

If you want your site to project a calm and or relaxed feeling then you should pick cool colors for your site. If you just want your site to have a more neutral feel to it then neutral colors will work best for that.

Depending on what your target audience is, that too can have an affect on the colors you choose as well. If your website or blog has a male target audience then men tend to prefer colors that are brighter and more vibrant. If women are your target audience then you should choose softer colors since women tend to prefer these softer colors. If your target audience is children then you should pick fun, bright colors as children like colors that convey a fun message. If you have a mixed target audience then it’s best to pick a combination or 2-3 colors from each aspect that work well together.

Another thing to consider when choosing the colors for your website or blog is the niche it is in. Some colors work well for certain niche’s while others seem kind of out of place in a certain niche. If you sell products on your site then picking colors that work well with those products is yet another thing to take into consideration.

If you are going to be using a lot of pictures on your site you might want to also look at the colors that will work well for the types of pictures your site will have displayed.

As you have read above, choosing the right colors can have a bigger impact on your site than you might have thought before. You will want your site visitors to like the overall look and feel of your site so that they will remember it and hopefully return to visit it many more times in the future. Be sure to read as much as you can about color choices and combinations and the effect they have on people. Also research your niche well and that can also lead to good color choices.

Having family and friends give you their honest opinion (even if it’s not what you want to hear) about some of your color considerations can also be very helpful. Making color choices for your website or blog can seem like it might turn out to be a bigger choice than you might have once thought.

However if you are willing to do research as well as trial and error color testing I am sure you will find a color scheme that both you and your site’s visitors will like.

Good Luck and may your website or blog reach the Apex in its Niche!