Colours, fonts and a logo for a small business website: simple rules that avoid a messy look

The short answer: a site that looks careful does not need a designer: it needs few choices, repeated consistently. Two main colours and one accent, two typefaces at most, plenty of white space and a simple logo that reads when small. What makes a site look amateur is the mixing, not the lack of money.

The rules

Part Simple rule
Colours One brand colour for headings and buttons, a light background (or a very dark one, but only one) and an accent colour only for the main button. More than that confuses.
Contrast Text must read well against the background. Light grey on white fails. See Six accessibility checks.
Typefaces One for headings and another for body text, or the same for both. Prefer those that read well on small screens. Body text at a comfortable size.
White space Let it breathe: margins, space between blocks. A site full of everything tires.
Logo Simple, readable when small and in black and white. Ask for it in a format that scales without losing quality (SVG) and a version with a transparent background.
Images In the same style and light, if you can. Real ones, not catalogue ones. See Photos for your website.

How to apply it

1 Choose the colours from the logo, not the other way round. If the logo has a colour, that is the brand’s.
2 Use a theme or a template and change little: the colours, the logo and the images. A well-chosen template already has the right proportions. See WordPress block editor or Elementor.
3 Set the choices once (in the theme settings) and do not repeat them by hand on each page, so they stay the same.
4 Look at it on a phone and with a friend who looks for ten seconds: first impressions are those of someone arriving.
Beware of fonts and images that are not yours. You need a licence to use them on a site. “Free” text does not mean free for any use: check the licence. And a logo copied from elsewhere or drawn from a well-known one can be a trademark problem.
Fonts loaded from outside make the page slower and may have privacy implications; use few and measure: Faster first paint.

Want an opinion on your site’s colours and look? Open a ticket with the address.

Open a support ticket

SEE ALSO

What goes on your home page: five things a visitor looks for in the first ten seconds

Is your website accessible? Six checks anyone can do

Photos for your website: where to get them legally and what to credit

WordPress block editor or Elementor: which one to build your pages with

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