Using the Psychology of Colour to Increase Website Conversions

Blue is one of the most popular colours used in branding and websites. This is for a good reason. The colour blue is associated with stability, loyalty and peace. These are good messages to give your audience. A well known company, PayPal, uses blue in its logo and across its website and app. It is also used in other, well known banks. This will help to improve their trustworthiness and convince people to use their bank, just by their colour scheme. If they were to choose another colour, such as yellow, as their colour scheme then they wouldn’t have the same effect on users. For example, if someone was looking for a new bank and visiting multiple websites, they would be likely to look more into a bank with a blue colour scheme than one with other colours. This is because the colour blue gives them a feeling of trust, a colour affecting them without them even knowing.

Darker tones and colours such as black and navy gives a sense of luxury, value and power. This is what high end e-commerce sites want their audience to feel. This is why it is used across sites and brands, it gives the feeling of elegance to both their products and website. The car manufacturer, Lamborghini’s official website has a black colour scheme. It is an expensive brand that wants to give their customers the feeling of luxury. Just like buying one of their cars will. Black is not always the best colour to use though. It is the ‘heaviest’ colour which means it can be difficult to highlight other parts of a website. Elements with a black background can seem smaller, so you should not use black when there is too much content on a page. While the colour black can have an elegant feel, it is also related to serious and negative feelings. This is why it is important to really consider when and where to use a black colour scheme.

Green, and other earthly colours, is used in connection with the outdoors, nature and the environment. The National Trust logo is green, which relates to nature which is what the company is all about. This could also be why BP, an oil industry company, uses it on their site and logo. They could be using the positive connections with the colour to present themselves in a more eco-friendly way. Green is also a colour that can improve creativity, which may be why some companies, such as Spotify, use it. Green is also a colour that stands out from the rest, which is why it is often used on buttons for websites. The ‘buy now’ or ‘submit’ buttons you see on websites are often in the colour green as it stands out from the rest of the webpage it is on.

Choosing the right colours is important as it gives the user information and feelings towards the site, without them truly thinking about it. These colours should match the company’s logo and branding, but also should be psychologically appropriate. This means having colours that will relate to the type of website it is. If a site is good to look at, then it is likely that people will stay on the site. This will increase the conversion rate, meaning people will take action on the site