When a visitor or potential customer arrives at your website for the first time, they form an opinion of your site and your company as a whole in a few seconds. This means that you need to make sure that every element of your homepage (primarily) and all the deeper sections of your site are completely tailored to give your visitor the best emotional response and first impression. Think about the last time you arrived at a site that looked odd, was unappealing, and made you feel awkward in some way…did you stick around? I doubt it. You don’t want to be in their shoes.
One of the key elements that are so often overlooked by people designing their company website is the colour scheme. Every colour has an effect on the emotions of your visitor, which as we have learned, will have an overriding effect on their perception of your company and your brand. A common way to approach the design of a company website is to use the company brand colours. This could be a real problem if your company colours do not emotionally appeal to your web visitors. What you can get away with on a letter head may translate into a colour scheme that scares away online customers.
So what’s best for your website?
Business
With a business or corporate website you generally want to convey that your company is professional, trustworthy and indeed holds an element of power. To give this impression immediately to your visitors, the best colour to use is blue. Blue naturally produces a calming effect and is a common colour used by royalty. Incorporating blue as a major theme in your business website will help visitors see you as an intelligent authority figure, but if you have anything to do with food you may want to use it more sparingly as it acts as an appetite suppressant. This colour scheme coupled with a clear indication of secure payment gateways and professional money transfer services will show your company in a very professional and distinguished light.
E-commerce
When choosing colours for your website if you are basically an online shop, what colour you choose should be decided by what products you sell. For example, if you are selling products for children then you are best to base your colour scheme on red. This colour is proven to catch their eye, is cheerful, energetic and will provoke a positive emotional response. Use sparingly though as red can also be associated with danger.
Use this same theory to pick your colours appropriately and you should be able to get this fundamental element of your website right from the start. Your visitors will be appropriately emotionally charged and, in turn, be more likely to reach one of your websites goals i.e. a sign up or a purchase.
With such a fiercely competitive network of websites and blogs out there, getting your website onto the screens of your customers and keeping it there is a tough job. There are many ways in which to help your business become more popular and more profitable if you own a physical store on a high street – doing things like regular advertising, improving the appearance of your shop front, placing special offers in the window and being friendly and courteous to your customers.
