There are several factors known to play a role in online success, however, one you may not have considered before is colour theory. It’s no secret that, in past years, the internet has come to heavily favour the aspect of aesthetics; if your website is not visually appealing enough, many users visiting your page will more than likely leave after just a few seconds of scrolling. Your website content could contain the exact answers your visitors are looking for, but if your site’s design isn’t appealing, chances are they’re not going to stay long enough to read it.
This means that all factors of your website pages have to be practically near to perfect. Layout, the use of pictures and menus are all things that need to executed well if your site is to outrank its competitors. Colours may also be found to play a starring role in your online success as they can have a much bigger impact on your customers and their opinion of your business website, than you may have initially guessed.
The basics of colour psychology may come across as fairly simple to some, i.e. green is used to bring around thoughts of nature and blue to present a calmer feel, while red can be linked to passion. However, these colours can also be subsequently linked to sickness, coldness, and anger, potentially having an adverse effect on your possible customers depending upon the context in which they are used within your company website’s design.
When implementing colours psychology to the design on your website, there are a total of three core issues that need to be considered within the decision-making process, these are psychological, cultural, and physical.
Physical aspects are the easiest to address, concerning those of visual impairment, such as those that may be colour blind. Your site should be easily accessible to everyone, but it should be kept in mind that, for some individuals, directions such as ‘click on the red button to learn more’ are not always the easiest to follow. It is vital to ensure that your website is easy to both access and navigation regardless of the sight held by your users.
Cultural factors also need to be taken into account, just as languages differ around the world, so do cultural perceptions and, consequently, views of varying colours. For example, in China, the colour yellow is associated with heroism, while in America the colour could potentially be associated with fearfulness and weakness due to the use of various phrases such as ‘yellow bellied’. Research into factors such as this is necessary when targeting your website to a number of countries; you want to make sure that your website is gender, age, and culturally appropriate.
When considering the psychological impact of colours upon the impression that your business website gives its visitors, it is important to, first of all, find the colours that suit your overall image and branding goals. A solicitor would opt for colours that convey trust and a great level of professionalism, where a toy shop is more likely to go for bright, fun colours that portray entertainment and happiness. This helps to set the tone of your website as a whole before you begin to look at other colours that give varying desired effects. For instance, under the circumstance that your business is undergoing a sale and you wish to draw the attention of your potential customers toward this, using red banners and lettering can be a great and very effective way to do so. Red is commonly considered a very impulsive colour, but it can also contribute to a sense of tension, creating an urge for visitors to look into your sale further. This method can also be used to encourage users to check out price drops and other various deals.
To conclude, though not commonly considered within the design of a website, colour psychology can play a huge role in the thought processes of your site visitors and possible customers, helping to determine their opinions of your business and its website as a whole. To discover the other factors that can play a role in the conversion rates seen across your site, why not visit our dedicated conversion optimisation page to learn what In Front Digital can do for you.