The colors used on a website are vitally important, but too often business owners ignore this, and have a bland or confusing site as a result. Familiarize yourself with the Do’s and Don’ts of website color before hiring a web designer.
Don’t use a dark background with light text. This may seem esoteric, but in the early days of SEO, unethical “Black Hat” programmers would hide popular keywords by using dark backgrounds with matching dark text. To stop this altogether, Google penalizes it darker backgrounds.
Do use white space. White space is your friend. Not only does it help readability when paired with dark text, it boosts your SEO and gets your ranking higher on websites like Google.
Don’t use a million different colors on your website. Not only is it confusing to the user, but it simply looks bad from an aesthetic point of view, and you don’t want your business associated with something tacky.
Do use a simple, complimentary color palette. All you need are a few colors that go together. Fewer colors help users focus on what the intent of the website is.
Don’t just use your favorite colors. You may love “neon pink,” but that doesn’t mean the color is going to help your site, your business, or your brand.
Do use color to further your brand’s image. Your brand should span all aspects of your business, and your website is no different. The colors on your website should complement and boost your brand.
Don’t let color get in the way of readability. The main point of any business website is to convey information. If a cool and interesting color combination gets in the way of communication, then your website is failing its purpose.
Do use color as a guide for the eye. Color isn’t just there to look pretty. It’s there to guide the eyes to the most important parts of the website.
Don’t overestimate the attention span of a user. The Internet has a tendency to turn everyone into a sugar-loaded child. If a user has to do any mental work to get the information, they will choose another site that doesn’t make them work.
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