Today I am going to talk to you about a topic on which I have done a lot of experiments myself. Initially, when I started making new websites, I used to think that, “Brother, colors are just for looking good.” But it is not like that at all. Listen to me, I made a new website whose background color was bright red and the text was white. I thought it would look energetic. But after some time, the visitors gave me feedback that their eyes started hurting! That day I learned that the colors of the website are not only for beauty, but are also very important for user experience.

Nowadays, whenever someone asks me, “Brother, how do I choose website colors?” I tell them the things I’ve learned from my own mistakes. So, let me share my personal experience with you.

Step One: Understand Your Brand Identity:

It’s not just about color, but about embodying your voice, your values, and your mission. What does your brand say? What do you stand for?

• Define Your Brand Personality: Imagine your brand is a friend who interacts with your customers. What kind of person is it? Serious and professional? Like a lawyer, doctor, or financial advisor’s website. Or playful, creative, and energetic? Like a children’s toy store or a graphic designer’s portfolio website.
• Professional & Trustworthy: Shades of blue, dark gray, or deep green are good for such brands. (The website color palette here conveys trust and reliability.) Think of companies like PayPal and Dell, their primary color is blue.
• Energetic & Youthful: Orange, bright yellow, or vibrant red evoke joyful and exciting feelings. Like Fanta or Nickelodeon.
• Luxury & Elegance: Gold, black, purple, or deep burgundy are colors that convey an expensive and exclusive feel. See the websites of Rolex or Chanel.
• Natural & Organic: Different shades of green and brown are perfect for this. Like an organic food store or yoga studio.

I had a client who ran an organic skincare business. They initially used black and gold, thinking it would create a luxurious feel and people would pay more. But their customers were confused. They thought they were a company selling synthetic perfume. Then we changed the entire website color palette to light greens, soft browns, and creamy whites. It created the same “natural,” “pure,” and “fresh” feel that their products had. After that, their sales increased by 20%! This is what they call understanding Brand Identity Colors. It’s the lifeblood of your business.

Step Two: Understand the Mental Impact of Colors:

Every color has some impact on your visitors’ minds. This isn’t magic; it’s human psychology, a topic of extensive research. You need to understand what your chosen color is telling your customers.

• Blue: This color evokes feelings of trust, peace, professionalism, and reliability. That’s why companies like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and PayPal use it. These people handle your data and money, so trust is essential.
• Green: Growth, nature, health, tranquility, and the feeling of money. Great for health clinics, environmental NGOs, or financial websites.
• Red: Conveys urgency, excitement, passion, or cleverness. Works well for buttons like “Sale,” “Limited Offer,” or “Buy Now.” But don’t overuse it, or it can appear aggressive and cheap. Remember, red can also raise your blood pressure!
• Yellow: The color of happiness, optimism, and youthfulness. Attracts attention, but should be used in a light tone. Too bright yellow can strain the eyes.
• Purple: Conveys a sense of creativity, royalty, spirituality, and luxury. Brands like Hallmark or Cadbury use this.
• Black: Conveys power, sophistication, modernity, and mystery. Luxury brands and high-end tech companies prefer this.
• White: Purity, cleanliness, simplicity, and sophistication. Just look at Apple; their website makes excellent use of white space and a white background.

After considering all this, you might be wondering, “Which one should I choose?” Don’t worry. You need to choose a dominant color that reflects your brand personality. Then, the rest of the colors will blend with it.

Third Step: The 60-30-10 Mantra – My Favorite Rule:

This is the rule that made my design life easier! Whenever you get confused, or your palette starts to look out of place, remember this golden formula. It teaches you balance.

• 60% Dominant Color: This will be the background of your website. Mostly it is a neutral color like white, off-white, light gray, or a light color. It is used so much so that your website does not appear “heavy,” it looks clean, and the content is easily readable. This is the canvas on which you will paint.
• 30% Secondary Color: This will be your primary brand color. Use it for headings, subheadings, buttons, footers, or important boxes. This color should be clearly visible on the page and tell the user, “This is the company’s main color.”
• 10% Accent Color: This is a contrasting or bright color. Use it for links, important icons, hover effects, or call-to-action buttons (such as “Subscribe,” “Buy Now,” “Download”). This color draws the user’s attention to specific areas and guides them to “click here.”

I built a website for a tech startup. We used off-white for 60%, a dark navy blue (for trust and professionalism) for 30%, and a bright electric orange (for energy and excitement) for 10%. It was easy for every user to click the orange “Sign Up Now” button because it was clearly visible and there wasn’t that color anywhere else on the page. Result? Their conversions increased by 15%!

Fourth Step: Ignore Contrast and Accessibility:

This is where I made a mistake with my first website. Your colors should be such that everyone, whether they have low vision, color blindness, or are viewing the website in bright sunlight on their phone, can easily read and understand your content.

Text Should Be Clearly Visible on the Background:

Light gray text on a white background does not look good at all. It appears as if the text has turned blue. Black or dark gray text looks better on a white background. You can use contrast checker tools.

Care for Color Blindness:

In one of my projects, I created a new graph where I used red bars for “loss” and green bars for “profit.” But the client said they had red-green color blindness and were mistaking them for the same color! Never use red and green together to convey important information. For example, if you have a chart, don’t rely solely on color; include patterns, labels, or numbers.

If you have accessible color combinations, you’ll also rank higher on search engines like Google, as they prefer websites that are accessible to everyone. This is also good for your SEO.

Fifth Step: Use Tools. My Top Picks:

You might be wondering, “Brother, how do I find a combination of so many colors? I’m not an artist!” Exactly! For this, I recommend some tools that are lifesaving for me. I use them regularly.

• Coolors.co: My personal favorite! Simply press the space bar and it shows you a complete palette. You can lock any color and try new combinations. You can also copy hex codes, which are very important for designers.
• Adobe Color (color.adobe.com): This is another very powerful tool. You can use the color wheel to try different schemes like analogous, complementary, and monochromatic. It’s designed for professional designers.
• Canva Color Palette Generator: If you have an image whose colors you like, like a photo, painting, or nature image, upload it and this tool will create a palette of the image’s five primary colors. It’s very easy.

Any of these color palette generators will be very helpful. I generate a palette myself on Coolors, then refine it a bit on Adobe Color, and then test the final palette on my website.

Sixth Steps: Mistakes I Used to Make:

Let me tell you about three common mistakes I made when I was starting out and corrected them immediately.

• Using Too Many Colors: Initially, I thought using 5-6 bright colors would make the website more attractive. But that didn’t happen at all. The website started to look like a circus, and users couldn’t understand where to look. Golden rule: Keep to 3-4 colors. (Keep the website color palette simple.)
• Lack of contrast: As I mentioned earlier, light text on a light background. Furthermore, I sometimes put a bright red button on a dark blue background. This makes the text vibrate and difficult to read.
• Following Trends Blindly: New color trends emerge every year. But that doesn’t mean you should change your brand color. You can incorporate trends into your accent colors. For example, “Viva Magenta” was introduced in 2021. I used it for the hero section buttons on a client’s website, but the primary blue color remained the same.

Seventh Step: My Personal Case Study

I created a website for a small local bakery. Their brand was to feel playful, family-friendly, and delicious. What we did:

• Brand Identity: Playful, friendly, yummy.
• Color Psychology: We combined warmth (red/pink) and happiness (yellow).

60-30-10 Rule:

• 60%: Creamy White (background) – for cleanliness and freshness.
• 30%: Warm Brown (header, footer, headings) – for chocolate, coffee, and warmth.
• 10%: Strawberry Pink (buttons like “Order Now”) – for sweetness and fun.
• Accessibility: Brown text was easily readable on creamy white. The contrast of the pink button was also good.

Result? The bakery owner reported a 40% increase in online orders, and people were specifically praising the website’s colors! He said people get hungry just by looking at the website. This was the power of brand identity colors.

Eight Step: Test and Launch Your Palette:

Once you’ve found your final 3-4 colors, test them. Don’t end up with colors that look good on a computer screen but completely different on a phone.

• Create a Dummy Page: Create a simple page in your website builder to see how the colors are applying.
• Check on Different Devices: Try it on your phone, tablet, and laptop.
• Check with Logo and Images: See if your palette matches your logo and website images.
• Get Feedback from Friends: Ask them how they like the look of your website. Is there anything they don’t understand? Is a button easily visible?

Surely, your hard work will pay off!

Bottom Line:

Choosing website colors is both an art and a science. Start with your identity, understand color psychology, follow the 60-30-10 rule, always remember accessibility, avoid common mistakes, and take help from tools. Your website is your digital face, and the colors on that face will reflect your personality, your values, and your professionalism. Don’t be afraid, experiment. Once you have the concept of creating a good palette, you’ll be able to easily choose colors for any project throughout your life.

I hope this detailed personal experience will be useful to you. If you have any questions, please ask.

FAQs:

1. What is the first step in choosing a website color palette?

Understand your brand identity and the emotions you want to convey.

2. Why is color psychology important for web design?

Because each color affects how visitors feel and perceive your brand.

3. What is the 60-30-10 rule in color design?

Use 60% dominant, 30% secondary, and 10% accent colors for balance.

4. How can I make my website colors accessible to everyone?

Ensure high contrast and avoid color combinations that confuse color-blind users.

5. What tools can help me create a color palette easily?

Coolors.co, Adobe Color, and Canva Color Palette Generator are great options.

6. What common mistakes should I avoid when picking colors?

Using too many colors, ignoring contrast, and blindly following trends.