We’re taking the guesswork out of what performs best when it comes to website design. We like to think we know what we’re talking about, designing over 70 websites for creatives, entrepreneurs and coaches, globally.

If you’ve ever taken a look at your favourite creator’s website for inspiration, then this piece is for you.

In our exclusive data report, we’ve pulled together real-time stats from all the sites we’ve worked on to show you exactly how founders are building websites that convert in industries like yours.

Colour Theory 

Colour is huge in conveying feeling. It’s an instant mood-setter and we make subconscious decisions on how we perceive a brand just based on the colours used. With this in mind, we analysed the colour palettes of over 70 websites and found neutral palettes were the favourite palettes. This includes shades of beige, nudes, browns, whites and blacks.

“29.8% of founders use a neutral colour palette across their site. Neutral colours have a calming effect. Often associated with versatility and timelessness, they are a great palette for layering with stand-out fonts or a leading colour to make it more eye-catching.”

Neutrals are known for enduring style. They’re long-lasting and won’t quickly go out of style. With a neutral foundation, you can easily switch up accents to keep your brand looking fresh and relevant. Neutrals are also adaptable for any brand style, although often associated with minimalist brands, the palette can work well with classic, and modern brands too. 

If neutral palettes aren’t your thing, and you’re looking for something that will stand out, or perhaps you’re looking to layer a neutral website design with something bolder, then take a look at the other colours we found.

“12.9% of websites we analysed used pink as their leading colour palette.”

Pink is often associated with femininity, sweetness, romance, innocence and playfulness. It’s more of a gentle colour, which means psychologically it evokes feelings of comfort, warmth and in some cases hope.

Pink often symbolises love, and you’ll find it is used around social holidays like Valentine’s Day, mothers day, and other days that represent love. Different shades of pink, like hot pink, for example, can evoke different emotions. Where lighter pink is calmer, hot pink is more associated with youthfulness, energy, and fun. 

While pink is often associated with femininity in more Western cultures, did you know in some other cultures like Japan, it can also represent masculinity? [the iPaper]

“We found 10.3% of founders’ sites we designed used green as their leading colour. This was particularly prominent in the wellness niche.”

When we think about the colour green, we often think of nature, health, and energy. This often makes us feel calm and harmonious. It’s also linked to youthfulness, or can sometimes have negative connotations like envy or naivete.

From a nature perspective, we often think of plants, trees, and grass. So it is a strong colour representation of the natural world. We also often see green represented in health care and wellbeing industries because of its association with nature.

In most cases, green is calming and has a sense of balance and stability. It can even represent new growth (great for coaches who specialise in growth strategies!). But be careful with the shades of green you use. This colour can occasionally be associated with negative emotions like envy or jealousy and in some contexts, green can represent a lack of experience or a naive perspective. 

Green also varies worldwide in its meaning. In Chinese culture, green is a lucky colour associated with wealth, regeneration, fertility, health, and harmony. Green, which is used on the Indian flag, actually represents the fertility and growth of land. 

“We love orange. It’s Field Digital’s leading accent colour. And so do the founders we work with! 9% of sites we have created used orange as its leading colour.”

We may be biased but we love the colour orange. It’s our main accent colour across our branding and our clients love it too. It’s vibrant, and it’s positively associated with warmth, energy, enthusiasm and happiness. 

The colour exudes feelings of joy and positivity and is also known to stimulate creativity and thought. It’s a good choice for environments that require innovation (see why we chose it now?).

If you’re a restaurant or food and drink brand, orange can be known to stimulate appetite, so it’s used often in restaurant designs.

In some cultures, this colour is considered sacred and is a symbol of spiritual enlightenment.

“6.4% of all sites we designed use shades of yellow as their colour palette of choice. Yellow immediately makes us feel happy and energised and that’s why it’s such a great colour to use.”

For the most part, yellow immediately makes us think of happiness and sunshine. It’s often linked to joy and draws a lot of nature inspiration like sunshine, spring, and summer. Did you know yellow is also often seen in stage performers’ costumes? [Hunter Lab]

Culturally, yellow does vary in meaning, for example in many Asian countries yellow is seen as a symbol of royalty, nobility, happiness, and wisdom. In Japan, it symbolises courage, however, in Egypt and Mexico, it is a colour of mourning. So depending on your target market, colour can be extremely powerful.

Fonts

Much like colour theory, there are psychological links in different typefaces, which help create an emotional response, perception or behaviour. By understanding this, brands can choose fonts that align with the intended message and audience.

The ways fonts make an impact vary entirely, for example:

1. Serif: classic, trustworthy, traditional
2. Sans-serif: modern, clean, simple
3. Handwritten: humanises, informal 
4. Bold fonts: strength
5. Thin fonts: appear softer
6. Uppercase: strength & power
7. Lowercase: friendly

When choosing your website design, you want to ensure the fonts you choose align with what you want your brand to come across as to your target audience.

“100% of the sites we have designed use more than one font. This is intentional. We want to enhance visual hierarchy, create contrast and make your site as aesthetic as possible, allowing us to express different tones and moods across your site.”

Using multiple fonts helps to convey different emotions across your brand site. You want to ensure you’re selecting fonts that are easy to read, so that you’re creating a positive user experience.

Site Pages

Deciding what to actually put on your website is probably one of the trickier things to figure out as a business owner. Too many pages can overwhelm and confuse the user journey, too little and they may not care enough to go to the next phase of the funnel.

With this in mind, it begs the question, “How many pages do I need on my website?” and we just might have the answer. 

“From the 70+ sites we have created, we found 89.6% have less than 5 pages. Most of these convey only the key information including the homepage, an about page, a product page, a contact page and occasionally a blog page.”

It seems any more than 5 pages may be overwhelming for a user. However, this does depend on your product offering. We find often founders see more success from their activity when they keep their sites concise with key information. 

Having a blog on your website isn’t always essential either. Again, it depends on your goals and the content you want to share. A blog is a great way to build your site’s SEO. 

“Only 22% of the sites we analysed included a blog. This really came down to the client’s goals and preferences. A blog can be a valuable SEO asset but if you’re not looking to regularly update it, it ends up being a wasted page and elongates the user journey unnecessarily.”

We recommend to any founders looking to use their website as a valuable traffic driver, then a blog may be helpful but only if you have the resource to keep it updated.

Calls To Action

Let’s talk about CTA’s (calls to action). These are the buttons you’ll include across your site to get your clients to go to the next phase of your website. ‘Click here’, ‘shop now’, and ‘enquire here’ are all examples of calls to action that you want to use. But did you know where you place them actually counts?

“100% of the sites we have created for founders have a call to action above the fold. So when a potential customer lands on their site, they’re immediately met with a clear call to action that takes them on the next stage of their user journey.”

Having a call to action where the visible part of your webpage is without scrolling is crucial because it ensures that it has immediate visibility and also maximises the chance of users engaging with it and as a result, leading to higher conversion rates.

Social Buttons

You’ve nailed your branding across your website, but what if your customers need a little bit more? It’s time to link it all together, by adding your social links.

“The final piece of the puzzle is connecting it all together. Keep your consistent branding from your Showit website to your social media pages. 100% of the sites we made and analysed include social links. It’s crucial for a seamless journey.”

If you’re looking to expand your brand reach and engagement then adding social buttons is a great way to go about it offering a convenient way for your visitors to connect to your brand and to share your content.

Founders looking to build high-converting websites should focus on strategic design choices that enhance user experience and engagement. Neutral colour palettes are the most popular, offering timeless appeal, while bold colours like pink, green, orange, and yellow can evoke specific emotions and brand associations. Typography plays a crucial role in shaping perception, with most sites using multiple fonts to create contrast and hierarchy. Simplicity is key in site structure, with nearly 90% of websites featuring fewer than five pages to streamline the user journey. Strong calls to action placed above the fold drive conversions, while social media links ensure brand consistency and extended engagement. By leveraging these insights, founders can create visually compelling websites that convert.