Choosing a Colour Palette for Your Website: A Step-by-Step Method

Colour is often the first thing people notice about a website, and the first thing business owners want to change. Yet many sites end up with too many colours, buttons that blend into the background or text that is hard to read on a phone in bright daylight.

You do not need to be a designer to choose a sensible palette. You need a method. This guide walks through one that works for most small business websites.

Step 1: Start from what you already have

Most businesses already have colours in their logo, signage, uniforms or packaging. Your website should feel like the same brand, so begin there. Write down the exact colour codes if you have brand guidelines. If not, ask your designer to sample them from the original logo file, not from a photo or screenshot, which can shift colours.

If your logo uses several bright colours, do not feel obliged to use all of them on the website. Pick the one that best represents the brand and treat the others as occasional supporting colours.

Step 2: Build the palette in layers

A practical website palette usually has three layers:

• Neutrals: white or off-white backgrounds, light greys for sections and borders, and a dark grey or near-black for body text. These make up most of the page.
• Primary brand colour: used for headers, key graphics and accents that make the site recognisable.
• Action colour: one colour reserved for buttons and links, so people instantly know what is clickable.

Sometimes the brand colour and the action colour are the same. That works if the colour contrasts strongly with the background. If your brand colour is pale, such as a soft pastel, you will need a darker shade or a separate colour for buttons.

Key takeaway: give each colour a job. When a colour has a clear role, the page feels organised. When colours are used randomly, the page feels noisy, however attractive each colour is on its own.

Step 3: Create shades and tints

One shade of each colour is rarely enough. You will need lighter versions for backgrounds and hover states, and darker versions for text or pressed buttons. Many design tools can generate a scale of shades from one base colour.

A simple set might include:

1. A very light tint for section backgrounds
2. A light tint for highlights and badges
3. The base colour
4. A darker shade for hover and active states
5. A very dark shade for text on light backgrounds

Keep the list short. A small, consistent set is easier to maintain than dozens of nearly identical colours added over time. Give each shade a simple name, such as primary-100 to primary-900, and use those names in your design files and stylesheet. When the designer and developer use the same names, colours stay consistent from mock-up to live site, and changes later take minutes instead of hours.

Step 4: Assign colours to interface roles

Write down which colour is used for each element. For example:

• Body text: dark grey
• Headings: near-black or a dark brand shade
• Links and primary buttons: action colour
• Secondary buttons: outlined in the action colour
• Success messages: green
• Error messages: red
• Section backgrounds: white and a light neutral, alternating

This short list becomes part of your style guide. When someone adds a new page or banner later, they do not have to guess. If you are building a wider system, our post on design systems for small teams explains how to keep it lightweight.

Step 5: Test readability and real conditions

A palette that looks great on a large monitor can fail on a phone outdoors. Before you finalise colours:

• Check text and button contrast with a free contrast checker. The WCAG accessibility guidelines set minimum contrast ratios for text.
• View the site on a mid-range phone at different brightness levels, including outside.
• Look at the page in greyscale. If buttons disappear in greyscale, they rely only on colour and may be missed.
• Make sure links are distinguishable by more than colour alone, for example with an underline.

Our guide to colour contrast basics goes deeper into readability.

FAQ

How many colours should a website use?

Most small business sites work well with a few neutrals, one main brand colour and one action colour, plus standard success and error colours.

Should buttons always be the brand colour?

Not always. Buttons need to stand out from everything around them. If your brand colour is used heavily elsewhere, a contrasting action colour may work better.

Can I change my website colours without rebranding?

Yes. You can adjust shades for readability while keeping the overall brand feel. Keep the logo colours exact and adjust supporting shades carefully.

A good website palette is less about finding the perfect colour and more about using a few colours consistently. Start from your brand, layer neutrals and accents, assign each colour a role and test on real phones. Your site will look calmer, more professional and easier to use.