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How Design and Colors Affect Your Website Conversions

There has been a long-standing debate about whether or not the colors and design elements you use affect your websites conversions. There have been many studies done that have actually proven that there are changes that you can make on your website that will result in an increase in conversions. In fact, design element changes can influence conversions as well as other factors such as website usability, branding, and even search engine ranking. The key to improving all of these factors lies with testing different colors and design elements to see which ones work best with your website and your website’s visitors.

Website Colors and Your Brand

The colors you choose can help tell visitors about your brand. Colors probably have more of an impact that you realize because they are closely tied to emotion. However, an important thing to consider when it comes to colors and emotions is that different colors represent different things in different cultures. Red is the color of marriage in many eastern cultures; while white is a color of mourning and death in Chinese culture. Yellow is a sacred color to Hindus, but represents jealousy in France and sadness in Greece. In Brazil, purple is the color of death. As a general rule, those who live in warmer, tropical climates tend to respond more favorably to warm colors and people who live in cooler climates prefer cooler colors. When it comes to colors and your brand, the calming blues and greens help to instill a sense of trust. Bold colors like purples and reds can help excite online shoppers and bring out passionate feelings. Yellows and oranges represent youthfulness, joy, and brightness.

Color and Website Usability

Colors play a big part in website usability. Of course, website usability has a huge impact on conversions. Website usability testing must be conducted in order to find out how the average user reacts to the elements on your site. Can they see the buttons? Can they read the font? How your visitors react to all of the little design elements on your website can make a big difference.

Color and Website Ranking

I bet you are wondering how the colors and design elements on your website could possibly affect your search ranking results. One of the many factors that are computed in ranking algorithms is time spent on your website. If your website is engaging and your visitors are interacting with the elements of your design, that will have a positive impact on your website rankings. At the same time, if you participate in some questionable website designs that have to do with color, such as hiding white text on a white background, you will likely face a penalty and your website will suffer in the rankings for employing black hat design elements.

Color and Website Conversions

When you design a website, taking the color into consideration is important because it can have an impact on conversions. All of the factors we covered already like brand impression, usability, and website ranking affect conversions. Analytics and testing specialists at Kissmetrics show how color impacts purchasing decisions:

• 93% of people put visual appearance and color over all other factors when shopping.
• 85% of shoppers make their decision based on color.

Color can help you attract certain kinds of consumers. Impulse shoppers respond well to red-orange, royal blue, and black. Shoppers looking for bargains or deals within their budget are attracted to teal and navy blue. If traditional shoppers are your target audience, use pink, rose colors, and sky blue to get their attention.

Takeaways on Color and Website Design

Hopefully after reading this article, you have a better understanding of colors and how important they are when it comes to the success of your website. The second most important takeaway is that testing is imperative to ensure that you have chosen the right colors that appeal to your customers and your visitors. Continual usability and variable testing is necessary to continuously improve upon conversions through small changes in colors and design. Another way to keep tabs on what your customers like most is through media monitoring. You can gain insight on consumer sentiment by using media monitoring tools like those available through iSentia. Your visitors are unique to your website, so you should adjust your design and colors according to their reactions.