Many times we tend to ignore colors completely while designing a website. But colors actually make a great impression and tell a lot about your business too to the visiting audience. When a small business starts looking at a website development idea it may be so without having a color scheme for business or brand already in place. Or even if they do use colors, these colors might not be the true reflection of their business and their customers. There are lots of points that should be considered before setting up color schemes but the following 10 are the most basic factors any designer working on a small business website should consider.

Understand your target market
You are the best judge when it comes to understanding and knowing the strength of goals of your company. So when you are planning to use a certain color ensure that it conveys the right message pertaining to your business. Your logo is always the first point of contact between you and your potential clients so decide your brand logo and design a personality accordingly. Amongst all the factors needed to be considered understand your target audience and factors like their gender, major age category, trade or geographic location.

Study your competitors
Have a look at the color scheme and designs your competitors are using and see if there is any pattern you can deduce that is running in the industry. Later it's up to you and the business owner to decide whether you want to stick to this traditional pattern or do something that stands out of the ordinary. For either ways the color choices have to be impeccable. It is better if you start using something different that appeals the target market and is also in synchronization with the personality of your brand.

Prepare various color schemes
A project is only successful if the customer feels utmost satisfaction but it is a hard fact that every customer is not an expert in web designing or chromatics. So it will be wise as a designer if you can come up with multiple variants of color schemes to provide alternatives to the client and meet the deadlines on time. The web designer always will try to select the most viable options but if the customer doesn't like it these variants come in handy to help save time instead of looking for a different approach.

Reflect the emotions
According to studies in color theory every color has its own meaning and representation of emotions. Suppose the agency is quite dynamic and possesses high energy then bright, vibrant colors can really work well. If the nature of business is serious then complex colors like maroon can go with the theme. Designs also provide with variations in mood and thus listing down the emotions and atmosphere needed for the business can guide you to choose the right color.

Check Usability on devices
Once the color theme of the website is decided upon, do check its look on every interface available to see if that is exactly the color you wish to use. Different browsers, monitors and devices do show colors a little differently and since it's the age of mobile devices don't restrict this usability test to just PC or Mac but also look it up on an iPad/tablet and smartphones.

Select 3 colors and use them thoroughly
Instead of using a lot of colors on the website choose only 3 colors that complement to each other and use them effective throughout the website. Visual harmony is always a delight for any viewer and it also helps in depicting consistency. You can also go for 4 to 5 colors but their use shouldn't be inconsistent. Many colors on the website can make visitors lose interest in your website and you may even lose potential clients.

Accessibility and Appeal
Color schemes should attract the customers and should be not just eye-catching but also quite accessible. The colors should impress and attract most visitors with considerations for people who suffer from color blindness too. These individuals should be able to read the text properly and should get the message conveyed by the website. In simpler terms the website should not just be flashy but also easy to understand.

Employ natural colors 
It may sound restrictive and boring but it is a fact that natural colors have the potential to impact visitors and stay in their minds for a longer time. Natural colors have the ability to communicate true emotions of your website and will hence be quite appealing to the masses. Artificial and bright colors can repel visitors and come across as quite a loud website.

Stick to the ideal ratio
While using colors always use the ideal ratio which is 60:30:10 meaning you should select three colors and use them in such given proportion. The first one of 60% coverage should be used for the design space, the second of 30% and the final one for 10%. The ratio is good at keeping a balanced design and provides a professionally looking color scheme on the website.

Restrict your colors
Don't overuse the colors and restrict the number of colors used because they can be rather distracting than useful. Too many colors are distracting and can make the visitors suspicious if you wish to hide something. That is why the right colors should be select in a less-is-more approach to get the best out of your website. Just like you decide between what to wear for a certain party it is important to narrow down the appropriate color for your website.

Use creativity to the highest proportion but stay in the bounds of the company objectives and personality for displaying their website. Also follow the audience and use attractive colors that may help you gain higher conversion rate

Author Bio
I'm Ramya, a freelance web designer/writer based in India. I have an experience of about 8 years in content writing and have worked for top blogs and websites. I'm generally an extrovert; I like photography, anthropology and traveling to different countries to learn the culture and living of the local inhabitants to do travelogues.