How to use colour and typography to do communication work before anyone reads a word. Visitors to your website form an impression of your business and whether or not you are a) trustworthy, b) professional and/or c) credible within moments. This impression is largely based on how your website looks rather than what you have written. Getting the look of your website right is cheap. Getting it wrong is going to undermine all of the hard work you have done on your website very quickly.

1. Pick two or three colours and stop there

It’s tempting to try out lots of colors, however soon you’ll be trying to fit in an extra button, a different color for your heading and a background color. Before you know it your page will look busy and not at all considered. If you are planning a website for your small business then a small, consistent palette of one primary, one accent and a neutral for text and backgrounds will look far more professional than a large, inconsistent palette of lots of colors.

2. Contrast isn’t optional, it’s readability

So, light grey text on a white background is not going to look great in your mockups, and it is going to be really hard for a lot of people to read. For some people it will be even worse, and they will not be able to read it at all. It is not a design choice, it is a basic requirement for readable text, and that must have sufficient contrast to the background. There are a number of free tools on-line that will check your color choices against a number of accessibility guidelines for you.

3. Fewer fonts, used deliberately

Two fonts are usually enough to create a good design for a small business website: one for the headings and one for the body text. If you use too many fonts, the design will start to look like you have put a lot of work into assembling lots of different designs, rather than creating one good design. Also, the font that you choose for headings can say a lot about the tone of your business, for example, a heavy, decorative display font can be very suitable for a creative business but not for a business that needs to be perceived as reliable and straightforward.

4. Font size and line spacing matter more than font choice

Many business owners spend hours debating the use of certain fonts on their website and often fail to check the reading size and line space. In reality, a small amount of body copy at too small a size or a dense number of lines of copy can deter visitors from your website very quickly – especially when they are accessing your site via a mobile device.

5. Colour carries meaning, so use it consistently

By consistently using colors to signal information, you can make sure that your visitors always know what they are supposed to do. If you for example decide to use a red color to signal for warnings, then use red for warnings everywhere on your website.

6. White space isn’t wasted space

Space in Web design is one of the simplest ways to improve your website and give it a more professional look and feel, within minutes. This can be simply adding some white space to the edges of your images and around your text.

None of the above really requires design expertise, just some sensible choices and then consistent application throughout your web site.