For many people, one of the hardest parts about building a website is the color scheme. I have seen many websites that look professional, but the colors didn’t go together. In my eyes, it didn’t look professional. That’s not to say that someone else might not like the color scheme, but I hated it.
Color is a very important aspect of design. Sometimes it can even help your brand name stick in people’s heads. Like Google’s logo, it’s four different colors, you might not remember which four, but if you saw some other name in the same colors, you most likely will think of Google. Or if you see a big yellow “M”, it will remind you of McDonald’s. Same thing. Not everyone is color-blind, so why not use that to your advantage?
Many times, simplicity really works. The EMP site, this site, has bright orange links for easier locating, and a simple orange, white, black and gray color scheme. Nothing fancy, but effective.
Also, remember to use people’s emotions triggered by colors to your advantage. This might seem a no-brainer, but it can help quite a bit. Red, orange, yellow are all “hot” colors and can mean “bad”, “loss” (as in the stock market qoutes), “fire”, “hot”, “exciting”, etc. Blues, greens, purples are “cooler” colors. Blacks and grays could be “elegant” or “professional”. Stuff like that.
For help, you can use an online color schemer where you can imput your own hex code or RGB code to find a color scheme that works for you. Or, you might try a color schemer that gives you more options for colors. Either of these tools are very helpful in creating the perfect colors for your site.