Does Color Makes A Difference To Your Website’s Profitability?

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Yes. It’s true. 100% true.

How your website is presented and look can do a lot to determine if your visitors trust you and actually want to make a purchase from you.

Presentation wise, there is always an important aspect to consider - formatting.

Lots of white space, ample sub-headings, short sentences, bolding and bulleting go a long way in improving readability. This is covered in my previous formatting post.

Today, we want to focus on another aspect:

The Colors Of Your Site

Have you ever been to a site that gives you the bad vibes? It’s like the moment you enter the site and straight away you feel like leaving?

More often than not, it is usually a black color dominated site with white text. Think satanic sites.

Firstly, white text on black background is highly unreadable.

Secondly, black is associated with darkness, night, evil, witches and cats. Now you see the picture?

If you are selling something, and you are going to put the readers in an uncomfortable mode, do you think they are going to buy?

HELL NO!

Okay even if the product is indeed quality and some visitors do buy, do you think your conversion might increase if you change the background to a lighter and more neutral one?

One that will put the visitor in a more happy and relaxed mode?

Very likely.

The Point Is - The Colors Matter - A LOT!

Cos that determines the presentation of your site and the aura it exudes. As well as the first impression that forms in the mind of your visitors.

Make your visitors feel uncomfortable, and they will leave.

Personally, I will always stick to black text on white background, to give it a clean and professional look. As for colors, I usually pick among blue, red, orange, green and yellow.

Here is a low down of each colors and their effects which I took from a Larry Dotson’s book. Pay serious attention here, especially if you are going to create a new site or a sales page.

It could mean more money being made or lost.

Here goes…

• Red - get them excited compel action, grabs attention, and ask people to order. Associated with love, romance, fire, war, blood,roses,
  danger, fire engine, sex, stop signs

• Yellow - create good money. Buy quicker. Like sunny day
  Associated with brightness, cheerfulness, light, idea,
  sun, lightning, sun, gold, daises

*As you can see, yellow on white background makes a bad combination*

• Pink - friendly color - may make people buy
  Good background color
  Associated with love, romance, pigs, sex, pink rose

• Blue - powerful color. Relax and calm people down
  Think water and blue skies.
  Dark blue - Authority - business man/policeman
  Associated with water, rain, policeman, business suit

• Orange - create warmth and comfort - like sun
  Associated with sunshine, sunset, oranges

• Green - make people feel secure
  Can use with privacy policy, guarantee form, secure
  order page
  Associated with trees, luck, spring, love money
  life, spring

• Purple - Associated with royalty, grapes, wisdom

• White - trust, honesty - help sell more products
  Associated with purity, dove, peace, innocence

• Black - black text on a white background - professionalism and sophistication
  Associated with night, evil, cats and death

• Brown - for credibility
  Associated with wood, earth, stability, leather

• Gold/Silver - valuable, rare metals
  Associated with jewelry, wealth, rare items

well said, my friend. Most people don’t realize how important colours are. And yes…although black background and white text may look cool, it’s a pain to read. Furthermore if you stuff you site with loads of text…. oh man!

Hi Donald,

Thanks for your comments!

Actually I really dislike white text on black background. Like you said, it is a pain to read. Real pain…

Cheers,
Jag

P.S Coupon site for hostgator? Looks like you are doing well. Nice….

Colours are fundamental in making or breaking a website. Some websites are loaded with so many colours, they clash and look so cluttered. When i click on those sites, i won’t even bother trying to read them. Click, click! Close!

I dislike to put black color as a background too. It looks like old days people make a webpage of aboutMyself. I have read through other blog regarding background color. Based on the result, majority of the blogger likes blur color. Maybe your research are correct regarding the blue color aas it gives relax to people

Hi Cory,

You are absolutely right! Overload of colors makes me feel dizzy. Too dizzy till I close the page…and never come back. A pity.

Jag

Hi Domdai,

Actually have certain part of the background as black is fine as long as it doesn’t form the majority.

If it forms a good contrast with the majority white background, then it can actually enhance the appearance. This is because it gets the eye trained in on the content.

As for blue, it is an authority color. Blue is one of the most often used corporate colors.

And that is why I use blue as my main color choice for my other sites as well.

Cheers,
Jag

I like my websites plain, with white background and black text, also with readable font sizes. I tend to keep my sites simple, minimalist, not having more than is needed.

Hey Jag,

I totally agree with you regarding colours and website presentation.

No offense dude but it does seem a bit ironic. You have to change your banner! It looks erm…like something drawn out from paint by a 5 year old.

If you need help lemme know. I ain’t a design whiz but can help do something up in 5 mins with photoshop. Or maybe when we meet for the mastermind session end of this month. =P

Regards,
Alvin Huang

Hi Alvin,

Absolutely no offense taken.

You are right. I was fiddling with banner using SnagIt on an Adobe Stock photo.

Result ain’t great at all, but I decided I had to move on cos I got more pressing stuff.

And yep, design is not my forte.

Sure, we can talk about this over the session. I will pay for it.

Thanks a lot for your feedback!

Cheers,
Jag

Hi Countdown,

Plain and minimalist design is the way to go.

It is elegant and classy. That’s how Google surged ahead pf Yahoo. They went the simple route.

Thanks for your comments!

Jag

Hi Jag,

Don’t be silly. I ain’t no pro designer either. So it’d be free…=)

Regards,
Alvin Huang

Hey Alvin,

Thanks a great deal man! I’ll owe you one!

Jag

Thanks for the reminder. With the age of the Internet, a lot of people tend to forget about tried and true methods of marketing like color theory. It’s always good to have a reminder from time to time.

color is important in a website. but its how you market your site as well..but keeping people there is just as important

Hi Dave and Vince,

Color plays a part in the overall marketability of the website.

One component, but still an important aspect nevertheless.

Cheers,
Jag

I’m not those website designer. In my opinion, keep the background color as simple as we can. Too fancy does make visitor not interested to view our site

Hi dub,

Yep, I absolutely agree with you. Simple works. Less is more…

Jag

colours do matter and they have a big impact on how you feel and can even effect your mood and your level of hunger, but i agree keep the background as neutral as possible nothing too shocking and most people are used to seeing black text on white background so thats the best way to go imo

Hi Subconscious mind,

Neutral background is good, as it is easy on the prospects’ eyes.

And neutral background usually portray a simple yet classy setting.

Cheers mate!

There’s a lot of talk about the background - but don’t forget the other colors you use on your site. One or two complimentary colors to use in your headlines, logo, etc are essential to your blog’s overall look, feel, and branding. Look at the best blogs - usually 2, maybe 3 colors - too many can really look disjointed and hurt the readability of the blog.

Hi HarpersDad,

Well you are absolutely right. It’s more than just the background but the overall.

I never like many colors. Keep it simple. And nice.

At the end of the day, we must give the visitors a good reading experience.

Jag

Just wanted to say great post.

I agree with the color issue, if the website is hard to read, you’ll find that most people will just come and go in a snap.

Yeah. Some websites really make me feel so hatred of. Those pop-up websites usually are very colorful. It is completely not professional for me. But anyway, I do like the black background with white color words website. I have to admit that I customize my own blog with black color background too. But for official websites, I will certainly say NO to this choice.

Killer:

Hmmm, I do use one exit pop up you described. Not exactly professional but it increases my conversion. Heh.

Well, I never like white words on blackground. But I’m sure your blog looks good.

Cheers!

Colors definitely have an effect on your website’s profitability. Your color choices could mean the difference between several sales or no sales.

Malignition,

After everyone’s input here, the consensus is out - you are right!

=)

Jag

i have started adding colour to my articles by adding in pictures, staring from my first article so it will take awhile, but its amazing how much different a few pictures can make to a post!

i also have recently installed the dofollow plugin!

Yo subconscious mind,

My mate. Good to see you have added in pictures.

A picture speaks a thousands words. It breaks the monotony of texts.

Ah,now that you have installed the dofollow plugin - even better!

Reward visitors with link juice back.

=)

Cheers,
Jag

For the most part I agree with you, Jag Foo but I still have some reservations. Great post though!

Hi Bankruptcy,

Firstly, there are a lot of colorful nicknames here. Haha…

Ok back to the topic. You mention you have some reservations?

Good. I love to hear them. It’s only we disagree on something then we can all learn…

Jag

[...] pointer to help develop your writing style is to experiment with color. Jag Foo states that it can be both fun and productive to vary colors within your piece of copy. A [...]

Too colorful words in the website are not professional and effective for me. I still think that the best website that will never harm our eyes are white background with black color text. :)

I love colorful websites. But I dislike colorful texts. I think that background can be very colorful. But for text, I prefer black as the primary color.

i love those website which make people feel confortable. i love colorful website but not those with bright color, i prefer something soft…this make pepple feel confortable when reading the website

Miss Lingerie:

So do I. I love soothing and neutral colors.

When they put me in the mood, I will stay longer. Read more. And why knows - I’ll even buy.

Jag

i think it does. if a website with those unconfortable color then i will off it immediately, not even willing to spend more than one minute on that website so i think the color play a important roles.

Hi Wallace,

I know exactly what you mean.

I’ve been scared out of a site many times. Dominantly black sites give me the creeps.

Jag

It really makes you think.. As I read each color description, I couldn’t help but re-evaluate what color schemes I’ve chosen for some of my sites. I may just decide to add or change a color in a couple of my themes.

Hey Makeupgirl,

Glad it had you thinking.

But from what I see from your site, it looks like you are on the right track.

Cheers,
Jag

i love stylist site because it show how creative the author is. I personally dislike colors that hard to read like black and pink. sore my eye reading. Some sites i need to highlight all the world only could read it. troublesome.

colorful websites do attract viewers, thus increase profitability. but too much color can make people dizzy, and colors too bright hurts eyes. it is important to choose coloring according to the type of webpage intended.

I like your description of colors. I have also done some color research for my book: Strategic Publications: Designing For Target Markets.

We need to use what ever information we can find to make our sites and our businesses more profitable. I recently wrote a post on business profitability. The url for my website link will take you directly to that post.

just found this posting, maybe not 100% true, but somewhat true I’d guess. Colors are indeed important.

Yes, color makes a difference to website’s profitability. It gives a good look to the site, which is an important factor that attracts the surfers . It makes the person to visit it.