The color theme of your website content pages impacts how your message is received by your visitors.  Let's take a very brief look at the unconscious reactions your visitors will have to your message based on the colors you select for your web pages.

The purpose of content driven web pages is to get web traffic

Every home page, every blog post, every sign up and register page has to goal of engaging the visitor.  That's why you write your website content isn't it?

When writing website content we all think about offering the right products at the right price, writing convincing and persuasive sales copy, offering solid content visitors can use, but, the colors we are using? No way! admit it... most of us select the color of our web pages based on what we like... our personal favorites.

How should you choose colors for web pages?

Our web page color selections have an impact on our customers. This impact takes place below the surface, its unconscious, emotional, visceral. Color choices for our web pages affect our image and our sales.

What is the surface color your website saying beneath the surface? Your background colors, the color of your header, the color of your text, headlines and sub-headlines and elements can all have a psychological impact on your website visitors.

Don't design boring web pages

To sell, you have to be exciting... you cannot bore your readers into submission. They have too many other options.

Do everything possible to avoid boring your website visitors. Create excitement on your web page, get attention, show you are human, set the mood and reach out. Color will influence your audience... use it wisely.

Here is a list of some of the common colors and what type of psychological emotion they invoke in people:

1. BABY BLUE: weakness (ouch MSFT)
   
2. BLACK  sophistication, elegant, seductive, mystery, seriousness, darkness, mystery, secrecy.
3. BLUE the world's favorite color! It is associated with trustworthiness, success, seriousness, calmness, power, professionalism. (IBM)
4. BROWN is associated with earth, nature, tribal, primitive, simplicity.
5. GOLD: wealth, prestige, precious.
6. GREEN nature, fresh, cool, growth, abundance. It is the color of nature, animals, health, healing, life, harmony... but also money!
7. GREY is associated with neutrality, indifference, reserved.
8. ORANGE: comfort, creativity, celebration, fun, youth, affordability. For some weird reason this is one of the lest popular colors in the U.S.
9. PINK: nurture, security, femininity, softness, sweetness, innocence, youthfulness, tenderness.
10. PURPLE royal, spirituality, dignity, royalty, justice, ambiguity, uncertainty, luxury, fantasy, dreams. It can also have religious meaning to some people.
11. RED is the color of danger, risk, love, passion, warning, excitement, food, impulse, action, adventure, excitement, strength, sex, speed.
12. SILVER prestige, cold, scientific.
13. WHITE: innocence, purity, cleanliness, simplicity.
14. YELLOW warmth, sunshine, cheer, happiness, also curiosity, playfulness, cheerfulness, amusement.

Some of the known psychological uses of color:

• Color affects shopping habits. Impulse shoppers respond best to red-orange, black and royal blue.
• Shoppers who plan and stick to budgets respond best to pink, teal, light blue and navy.
• Traditionalists respond to pastels - pink, rose, sky blue.

How can you design website content with this information?

It all depends on the message you want to get across to your website visitors with your color selection. I suggest you:

1. Start a list of your goals and objectives, or simply refer to your strategic marketing plan.
2. Now write the best color match for each of your objectives.
3. Which colors show up the most? Hey! What do you know... you've created a color scheme. Your design team is going to love you.
4. Got too many colors? Maybe you are trying to achieve too much with your marketing plan or your website.  Perhaps you should spin off a separate website to achieve some of the goals on your list. Now, you brand management gurus are going to love you!

Blue Website Designs

Every one likes blue... so its a no-brainer. Right?  Hmmm, blues against a white background is a common theme for business sites (trustworthy, innocent.. oh give me a break...). But you run the risk of being cliche. I’ve seen way too many websites that use blue and they are boring. Be careful.

Website Design Caveat

Don't make the mistake of thinking your website's colors carry all the weight. Your color theme is a framework to support and draw attention to your artwork, logos. Put them on display, push them over your borders and bars as if they are bursting off the page. This gives them a 3-D look and they will appear to be popping off the pages.

Website Content Typography...

It's not a law, but black type against a white background is best for readability. Readability is your main concern. If your website visitors don’t read your message, they won’t buy from you.

Even the smallest factor that makes your message just a teensy bit more difficult to read could loose a lot of readers and waste the opportunity your awesome SEO work has done getting them there in the first place.

Also , most people don’t have 20/20 eyesight like you! Type that too small, too fancy (read script) or has a conflicting background (read background images), won’t get read. For most website designs a white background behind your type is best, a very light color is second best. choice (read 10%m screen).