How to Use Color and Background Pattern to Increase Website Traffic

Does your web site represent your personality or business in a way that creates a good amount of website traffic? It's easy to simply pick out a couple of colors that you like and throw them on your web pages, but does that make it a good color scheme? Just because your Aunt Persnickety loves black and orange, does that mean using those colors will increase your website traffic? Well, maybe ... if your site is about Halloween, or about the origin of licorice and oranges.

What about background images? Will your favorite photo or image do, or is a pattern that catches the eye needed? And if so, where can patterns be found that might increase website traffic?

Increasing Website Traffic with Color
When it comes to colors, there are a number of sites that list seasonal or yearly color schemes. (It's probably safe to say that most of us didn't even realize a "Color of the Year" existed.) If you're not interested in changing your website's colors annually, looking at the popular color schemes is still a benefit. It can help you find an initial fit that may give you increased website traffic ... especially if all you're currently using is white, black or gray. Try the following sites for color scheme ideas, then match them as closely as possible with web compatible colors. It'll give your site a modern, professional look, and possibly increase website traffic:
Benjamin Moore (Paint) for Architects and Designers
Pantone.com

If this year's "in" colors aren't of interest to you and you're simply looking for basic colors that match in a monochromatic or complimentary color scheme, there's a wonderful color wheel that's easy to use at Color Scheme Designer. It's a great help because matching up tones may require a more artistic eye than some have.

There's also a less-technologically-advanced option for choosing your colors. Visit any store that carries paint, and look through the color swatches. Find the ones that give either a monochromatic or complimentary color scheme, take home the swatches you like and match them to web colors. Then use those colors as a background on your web pages.

Increasing Website Traffic with Background Patterns
Nothing screams "amateur" in a website more than a plain white background and black font, or vice versa. It's well worth the time involved to add color/pattern to your website in order to entice visitors to linger and then return.

The easiest way to apply pattern to a web page background is to create a patterned image (usually in jpeg format) in a graphic design program such as Photoshop or Gimp and then use it as a background image on all the web pages. Or, if you have a photo with a repetitious pattern, or one with a main focal point that will look good centered or tiled, (tiled is a composite formed by lining the image up, edge to edge, across the page) you can also use that.

If your knowledge of web design is limited and you prefer to use a blog as your website instead, there are numerous sites that have free, downloadable backgrounds. Two of my favorites are The Cutest Blog on the Block, and Scrap-e-Blog.

If you decide to use a pattern on your pages, make sure it's not so busy that it competes with the font. After all, the message is the important item on the page and a pattern that's so wild it makes the eyes hurt will not increase website traffic, but decrease it.

Does it Really Matter?
As a writer, I receive a lot of promotional email and one of the first criteria I look at when considering purchasing an item is whether or not the company's web design appears professional. Sites that have white backgrounds with black font sitting in a square, outlined box almost always end up with their mail moved to my trash folder. I don't expect every company to be an expert at site building, nor to have the cash flow to have a webmaster on their payroll. However, if someone like me-whose vocation is writing and not web design-can manage to use color and background patterns, then anybody who has the desire to improve their website should be able to do the same.

Take a moment to think about it. What sites do you visit, and why? The sites that are most popular for you not only contain great content, but it's a safe bet that they also contain colorful pages and/or a background pattern or image. Well chosen colors and patterns sooth the eyes, lighten the heart, and make us feel welcome. Isn't that worth implementing in your own site in order to increase website traffic?

Sources:
Adobe Photoshop Help Files
DesignHole.com
Embedded links as listed above
Personal experience

(Disclaimer: Website traffic is dependent on a number of factors that include subject matter, search engine optimization, and information flow ... as well as design. Although choosing an interesting color scheme or background pattern may help increase the number of hits on a site, the author makes no claim that color/design changes alone will result in any anticipated result.)