Choosing the right website colors is more than just an aesthetic decision—it impacts user experience, brand perception, and even conversion rates. The right color scheme can make your site more visually appealing, easier to navigate, and more effective at engaging visitors. In this article, we’ll explore the best colors to use on your website and how to choose a palette that aligns with your brand and audience.

1. Understand the Psychology of Colors

Colors evoke emotions and influence behavior. Here are some common associations:

• Blue – Trust, professionalism, calmness (commonly used by banks, tech companies, and corporate brands)
• Red – Energy, urgency, passion (often used for sales, entertainment, or food industries)
• Green – Growth, health, nature (popular for eco-friendly brands, finance, and wellness)
• Yellow – Optimism, warmth, creativity (used by brands wanting to appear cheerful and inviting)
• Orange – Playfulness, enthusiasm, friendliness (used by brands like Nickelodeon and Fanta)
• Black – Luxury, sophistication, power (common in high-end fashion and premium brands)
• White – Simplicity, cleanliness, minimalism (seen in modern websites and healthcare brands)

2. Choosing a Primary Color

Your primary color should reflect your brand’s identity. If you already have a logo, use its dominant color as the base for your website’s palette. This ensures consistency across your brand’s digital and print materials.

3. Selecting Complementary Website Colors

A good color scheme consists of:

• Primary color (the main brand color)
• Secondary colors (used for contrast and emphasis)
• Neutral colors (backgrounds and text for readability)

Use tools like Adobe Color or Coolors to generate harmonious color palettes.

4. Consider Readability and Accessibility

Color contrast is crucial for readability and accessibility. Follow these best practices:

• Dark text on a light background (or vice versa) improves readability.
• Avoid color combinations that are difficult for color-blind users (e.g., red-green or blue-yellow).
• Use tools like the WebAIM Contrast Checker to ensure your colors meet accessibility standards.

5. Use Website Colors to Guide User Actions

Strategically using colors can drive engagement:

• Call-to-action buttons (CTAs) should stand out (e.g., red or orange buttons for urgency).
• Navigation menus should be clear and visually distinct from the background.
• Important information can be highlighted with accent colors to draw attention.

6. Keep It Consistent

Too many colors can make a website look chaotic. Stick to a limited color palette—ideally 3-5 colors—to maintain a professional and cohesive look.

7. Test and Optimize

What looks good in theory might not always work in practice. Use A/B testing to experiment with different color schemes and analyze which combinations drive the best user engagement and conversions.

Website colors

The colors you choose for your website should align with your brand identity, appeal to your audience, and enhance user experience. By understanding color psychology, ensuring accessibility, and maintaining consistency, you can create a visually appealing and effective website.

Would you like help in designing your website? Let us know! Read more »

After creating a successful business, you want a successful website launch. Not only does that mean having a website that performs well and looks appealing, it also means having a website prepared for the best search engine results as possible. This is why there is a benefit of using the same SEO and web design company for your website.

Using a company that provides both SEO and Web Development services enables the website designer to work with the marketing department to ensure that your new website gets off to a great start. The marketing department will use their trade secrets to improve your website’s search results from the get go. Many people don’t realize that there can be errors in your site that can only be seen by search engines, these errors will impact your potential rank and if your web design company isn’t up to date on the latest SEO trends, you’re hurting your search results online before your site is even launched.

With this in mind, there are specific tasks the marketing department needs to have in place prior to the launch of the website. By working hand in hand with the web designer, this process flows seamlessly between the two, rather than going back and forth between a few different companies. Or even worse, after the website has been launched.

When these steps are taken prior to the launch of your website, Google will index your website and begin ranking it at the launch, rather than at a later date, which is better for you. Not doing these in tandem with the launch can be costly, and sometimes those precious moments can never be recovered.

By using the same team, not only are the team members familiar with each other, there’s already a process in place. They are experienced with communicating with each other, and they can respond quickly should any problems arise.

It doesn’t matter how great your website looks or functions—if no one can find you online you simply don’t exist. Show your business to the world with Webtivity Marketing & Design! Click here to request a consult.

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TECHXPO HOSTED BY Manatee Chamber of Commerce

On November 3rd, the Manatee Chamber of Commerce will host the 2016 TechXpo at their Lakewood Ranch Office at the McClure Center 4215 Concept Court.

The Techxpo will feature an all-star lineup of local technology experts including Webtivity’s very own Terry Thompson, who will help business owners, managers, and in-house IT staff gain the knowledge they need in order to stay apprised of technology that can help their businesses grow and prosper.

Terry will be a participant in the Web Essentials Panel Discussion, an open forum to help answer questions you may have regarding best practices on web design, search engine optimization, tips / tricks / plug-ins to make your site stand out, and help your clients and customers have an outstanding online experience with you.

The schedule of events is as follows.

9:00 AM – 9:20 AM
Networking and mingling with local IT experts

technology experts

9:20 AM – 9:50 AM
Social and Mobile Computing

9:55 AM – 10:25 AM
Web Essentials Panel Discussion

10:30 AM – 10:50 AM
Disaster Preparedness & Recovery

10:55 AM – 11:25 AM
IT Security & Your Business

11:30 AM – 12:00 PM
Questions and Answers

Tickets are:

$28 – Manatee Chamber Members and Manatee Young Professionals
$38 – Non-Members and Guests

Enter our coupon code Webtivity to save $5.00 on admission.

Register here.

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How many people does it take to build an effective website?

I frequently find myself having a conversation with potential customers about how many people it takes to develop an effective online marketing solution.  Many seem to have the impression if you know how to repair or network computers, then you must know how to design a website and promote it online.  The training required to be an IT professional is very different from the training for web design.  There are dozens of certifications one can obtain in the IT field and none of them are related to web design or internet marketing.

Since I worked in the healthcare industry and I think more people can relate to that industry, let’s think about it in these terms:  When you go to a hospital to receive care, how many people does it take to care for you during your stay?  Is there one person assigned to you who draws your blood, performs surgery, and takes a CAT scan?  No, individuals from various disciplines perform those separate tasks.  Why?  Partly because they were each trained in their specific areas to insure the best outcomes for each aspect of your care.

The same is true in most industries.  For example a company may offer plumbing, electrical and HVAC repair services, but they don’t send the same technician to work in each of those areas.  Instead they hire technicians who were trained and received certifications in each of those areas.  In our field there are three primary areas of expertise involved with creating an effective website:

• art/design
• technical
• marketing

Sadly many schools offering web design programs don’t offer a comprehensive curriculum which adequately addresses all these areas.  Most schools focus primarily on the design aspect (layouts, colors, etc.)  By necessity they do delve into the technical side, but tend not to spend significant time teaching students about search engine optimization and the more technical aspects of developing a website.  And many schools tend to spend even less time teaching basic marketing principals.

But think about it: your website is a primary marketing vehicle for your business — so if your website does not effectively communicate your marketing message and is not technically developed to current search engine standards, you are likely wasting a lot of time, money and potential.

That is why an interdisciplinary team can produce a much more effective online marketing campaign for your business.  You have the individuals working on your project who specialize in web design; those who specialize in the technical side of search engine optimization, and those who specialize in the marketing.  It is very rare to have all those necessities contained in one individual.

What’s that you say?  You need custom programming for your project?  Well that adds another discipline into the mix!  Programmers are trained completely differently from designers, SEO specialists, and marketers.

Understanding the people who make up our industry, their training and capabilities can make you a much more informed consumer when seeking an online marketing partner.