Don't turn your visitors off the minute they see your home page! It may not seem important, but the color choices you make can mean the difference between success and a bomb. How so? If you are doing international business, especially, you'll need to pay careful attention to the cultural connotations of color. For example, if you will be doing business in Ireland, the color Orange signifies Protestantism and this may not sit well with the Catholic community there: best to go with a more culturally neutral color instead.
Although your chocolate company's no-brainer go-to color is brown and such a choice would be considered classy in North America, using such a color on your website will discourage sales in South America since it is associated with dirt and dung.
If your primary business is in North America, blue is acknowledged to be the safest choice because it is considered to be a professional and conservative color. It is the most common pervasive color on banking websites for this reason! Using colors such as grey and neutrals is a popular choice for attorneys. Children's websites are colorful and bright. It all has to do with knowing who your audience is and catering your color schemes to fit.
Now, all this doesn't mean your website needs to be absolutely neutral. Splashes of color are great and give a website its own unique feel and flavor. But human nature is such that if a person lands on a website with an acid yellow background, the initial reaction will probably be one of immediate dislike. The colors you choose can enhance or detract from your site's sense of ethos or credibility in the eyes of your visitors.
One of the principles of Gestalt emphasizes that people can more easily read a document (or web page) that has distinctive figure/ground contrast. What that means is that the font style as well as the color of font that you choose must be easily read when combined with the background color.
If a website is difficult to read, visitors will go elsewhere. Although it may be tempting to choose one of those cool busy backgrounds for your site, it will be nearly impossible for a visitor to read the text, no matter what color you select for the font.
Choose a simple background color and make sure there is a clear contrast between it and the font color. For example, if your background is navy blue, the writing should be white or a light pastel color. If your background is yellow, choose a dark navy to help the words stand out better. According to studies, the most difficult writing to read is pink on a red background!
If you think you may have trouble figuring out which colors might be most appropriate to your website, you may wish to hire or consult with professional web designers who know all of the ins and outs of creating a visually appealing site that will bring visitors back again and again.
