Print advertisers and designers say that colour plays a 60% role in whether an ad is accepted or rejected. The other 40% goes to copy and imagery.
Although there are many important factors that play a role in how well your Web site performs, the fact is that the colours you use on your Web site play a significant role in how it converts and if people come back on a regular basis.
Here are some rules and ideas to follow when designing or re-designing your Web site.
Use your logo's colours
Most companies have some sort of logo that they use on business cards and other printed marketing materials. Use this as a starting point for picking your site's colours because it creates unity throughout your business and makes you appear more professional.
The key is to not go overboard when adding additional colours. If your logo uses two or three colours, then it's best to just stick with those and be done with it. However, if you're only incorporating one colour in your logo design, then consider adding one or two complementary colours that enhance the main colour without overpowering it.
Determine your site's mood
Colours are constantly used to signify mood. Red means excitement and passion, which is why it's always used for love. The colours you choose for your site will create a mood - even if it's unintentional. So it's best to sit down and decide what kind of mood you want your Web site to convey before choosing your colour scheme.
Also, colour can say a lot about your own personality, which you might want your site to reflect. If you're an energetic person, choose colors that reflect that.
Here are a few examples of different colors and what moods/feelings they suggest:
Warm Colours
Red: aggressive, passionate, strength and power
Pink: innocence, femininity, delicate, innocence
Orange: warmth, energy, enthusiasm, happiness
Yellow: happiness, sunshine, cheerfulness, loyalty
Cool Colours
Blue: calmness, gentleness, wisdom, sadness (feeling blue).
Purple: royalty, spirituality, intuitive, wisdom
Green: harmony, growth, health, good luck
The cool colours above are also the top 3 colours chosen by women.
Neutral Colours
Brown: reliable, practical, strength, comfort
White: purity, simplicity, truth, positivity
Gray: conservative, authority, maturity, sadness
Black: classic, serious, authority, death
How to choose a colour combination
After you decide on what mood or feeling you want your Web site to reflect, it's time to pull the colours together that will achieve that effect. There are several different ways to combine colours to ensure that they work in harmony and don't distract.
Single Colour Combos
 Choosing one colour for your site doesn't have to be as limiting - or boring - as it sounds. You can make one colour appear to be multiple colors by varying the lightness or darkness of the color. Using different percentages of lightness of the same colour will keep your site unified in tone, while making it appear more colourful than it actually is.
Relative Colour Combos
 This style uses colours that are related to one another, but not identical. Using this method, you can create striking and attractive colour combinations that work in unison with each other to be pleasing to the eye. The best way to employ this is to grab a colour wheel - and pick colours that are close to one another on the wheel. Relative or analogous colour examples are green and yellow (see colour chart on left), or blue and violet.
The key to pulling this off so that your site doesn't end up looking a mess is to choose one colour as your dominant colour - which you'll use for the majority of your site - and then use the others as accents.
Complementary Colour Combos
 These are contrasting colours because they appear opposite one another on the colour wheel. If you were to look at a colour wheel, red is opposite green. These colours are opposites, but are often used together because they compliment one another. The reason these combinations work well is because you're generally combining cool colours with warm colors, and that provides nice balance.
Again, pick one colour to be your dominant colour and use your opposite colour for accents. Be careful not to put two contrasting colours at their highest strengths close together because the human eye has too much difficulty focusing on both at once.
Closing thoughts
Colour is not only a great way to set the tone for your site, but it's also very useful for branding purposes. Just look at UPS and you'll see what I mean.
Using too much colour will turn people off, which is why it's advised that you stick with no more than three colours for your site. Also, if you're unsure as to what to do with your background, go with white, with black text on top. It's the easiest to read and you simply can't go wrong with it.
- Nina Menezes
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"It is not the form that dictates the color, but the color that brings out the form."
- Hans Hofmann
"I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn't say any other way--things I had no words for."
- Georgia O'Keeff
“Mere colour, unspoiled by meaning, and unallied with definite form, can speak to the soul in a thousand different ways.”
- Oscar Wilde
"Why do two colors, put one next to the other, sing? Can one really explain this? no. Just as one can never learn how to paint."
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Pablo Picasso
"You can't be at the pole and the equator at the same time. You must choose your own line, as I hope to do, and it will probably be color."
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Vincent van Gogh
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