How to choose colors for your website

True story: I went through a phase where I changed my blog design colors every single month. Sure, it was fun — but I wouldn’t recommend it if you’re working to build a brand!

So how do you choose the right colors for your website? I think the key here is: Don’t overthink it. Every day you come into contact with every color of the rainbow used in a variety of ways. You don’t have to think about it to know when color feels off. I don’t have to give you a list of what each color communicates — you probably have your own emotions associated with each color. Here’s how you can take what you already know and narrow it down to a color palette for your website.

Know your brand words

Before you begin your search for the right colors, you have to know what you want to communicate. How do you want people to feel when they visit your website? The colors you use are a huge factor in the first impression you make. Picture someone visiting your website for the first time, and think about the words you would want them to use to describe it. What do they tell their friends? Narrow it down to two or three words, and now you have brand words to guide you.

How do you want people to feel when they visit your website?
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Gather inspiration

Now that you know your brand words, start looking for inspiration. I recommend creating a Pinterest board — keep it private if that will help you pin ideas more freely. I personally tend to edit myself a lot more when I’m pinning publicly because I want to make sure pins are properly credited and reflect my brand well. But the point here is that you don’t want to overthink it — you want to get to the point where you can start seeing trends between the things you pin.

Create a private Pinterest board to gather inspiration.
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Play around

After you’ve spent some time gathering inspiration, walk away for a bit. Visit it again with fresh eyes, and you’ll notice that the same colors probably keep popping up. Start pulling those colors and play around with them. If you’re having a hard time pairing colors, check out Design Seeds for color palette inspiration.

Select two or three colors

Ultimately, you want to narrow your color palette down to two or three colors for your site — any more than that can get overwhelming. As you try out different colors, ask yourself if they feel right for the brand words you chose. I honestly was never a big fan of orange until I paired it with pink, and I loved the energy it brought to my brand.

Stay consistent

In some ways, it’s not really about what colors are right for your brand so much as it is about staying consistent with what you choose. Of course, you probably don’t want to use bright red if your brand is meant to be calm and peaceful. But as long as you choose what feels right to you, it probably feels right to your readers as well. Stay consistent, and over time people will begin to associate your colors with your brand.

Choose colors that feel right to you — it probably feels right to your readers as well.
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