How to choose colour combinations for your website

Picking a colour scheme for your website falls into two camps: super easy as you have your branding nailed already, or an absolute headache.

I’ll be honest, I fell into camp two for years. Despite spending decades looking at, and designing websites, It’s really hard to be critical of your own site and colours. When it came to designing Milk It, I concentrated on milk carton branding and used a cool blue. I didn’t like it. It was cold, and cooperate looking and just didn’t fit. I then kept it simple, and just used black and white with some punchy images. That was OK for a while, but it was lacking in something. After a few months, I settled on my current colour theme: teal & yellow. This is a combination I’ve loved for years; it reminds me of the sea and sand, bright golden summer days. It also happens to match my sofa and cushions. Does it have anything to do with Milk? No, but that’s OK, as it has something to do with me.

So, how do you pick your colour scheme when feeling totally and utterly overwhelmed by the limitless choice?

Colour theory

Colours can trigger certain feelings on sight, so you want to pick these carefully, depending on what you are promoting and who you want to work with, or who you want to sell your products too. Check out this handy infographic, all about colour theory. In terms of my colour scheme, blue enhances feelings of trust and productivity, and yellow reinforces intellect and energy - which backs up my decades worth of experience in SEO and web design (and my passion behind it!)

Pick a colour scheme for your website

Finding a colour scheme that works for you, all comes down to what you do and what you sell, and who to. Use primary colours: purple works well for high-end products, as consumers associate it with royalty and money. Blue conveys feelings of reassurance and loyalty, whereas red is for urgency, green works well for eco-businesses and freshness, pink for more feminine products and lightness.

Create brand recognition

Once you’ve settled on your colour scheme, you then want to apply it across all your branding: from logos, social media platforms and so on. Brand recognition is so important to help gain brand loyalty, return visits and association; it increases brand recognition by a massive 80%.

Colour matching

Colour matching comes naturally to some people, and to others not so much. Picking a colour palette for your site can be a frustrating process, with an overwhelming amount of choice. I like to use Color Hunt, which selects colour matches for you.

If you’d like help picking colours for your website, take a look at my design package, I’m looking forward to working with you.