Choosing Colors For Your Website by Steve Sandberg

An ecommerce website has a lot of work to do. It doesn't speak and can't respond directly to questions or concerns so getting a sale can be quite a task. Everything about the website will have an effect on whether or not the visitor purchases. One of these features is certainly the color choices.

Different colors have always naturally evoked different emotions in people. Film cinematographers take advantage of this all the time. Web designers should too. The following list of colors and commonly-associated feelings will help.

Red is generally associated with passion, especially feelings of love and violence. It also has strong ties to feelings of danger and hunger.

Orange is more associated with excitement and celebration but also conjures feelings of comfort and regularly creativity.

Yellow is an obvious choice for feelings of joy and amusement. Use of yellow in your website will spark ideas of curiosity and lightheartedness.

Green is associated with two rather different things, money and nature. Use green to either make people think of cash or organic life.

Blue is very professional. Most often, blue is associated with success and trust.

Violet, as a cross between blue and red denotes regality, honor, and luxury. More dramatic than blue, but more royal than red.

Pink is soft and sweet. It's usually associated with little-girl aspects like purity and tenderness.

Brown goes best with green. Both denote nature and the earth, with the brown bringing up feelings of primitiveness.

Black is used in many different ways. Mostly black colors are associated with mystery.

However, in a professional design setting, there's always something to be said for ironic uses of color. Technologically advanced websites have been built successfully around greens and browns, but it's always a little easier to use colors that naturally evoke the emotions you're aiming for.

Often websites will focus on colors that fit more directly with their product line. A website selling golf products will nearly always have lots of green to remind people of why they golf and being on the links.

Everything else being equal, shades of blue for an ecommerce site will encourage people to trust you as a business and will help visitors feel comfortable buying your products.

About The Author

Steve has been working in the internet marketing business for more than four years. He specializes in web 2.0 and social networks marketing for ecommerce and content-driven websites.

http://www.globalmarketingdesign.com