When designing a website, most of us pay a great deal of attention to the quality of our content. We need to craft our message very carefully so that we portray all the more important elements in as short a space of time as possible. We understand that internet surfers are extremely busy people, and they have a tendency to skip around from website to website, often spending only seconds on each page.

Psychologists tell us that the first impression is very important and that a few second reaction can often mean the difference between persuading someone to stay and further investigate or continue on their journey. This shows us that while we should really focus on the overall quality of our written content, the actual design and appearance of the website is crucial too. Selecting the ideal colors for your website should be more than just a quick decision, and using of a certain shade because it happens to be “your favorite color,” isn’t always the best idea.

Sometimes you will find that you are steered in a certain direction due to the very nature of your site, the product or service that you may be offering, or the very reason for its construction in the first place. While this may mean that you are leaning toward primary colors, pastel colors, stark blacks or whites, you nevertheless need to ensure that you have a balance between your colors and shades – in other words focus on a color scheme.

When all is said and done, a color scheme should be very pleasing to the eye – unless you’re specifically designing your website to provoke people, but always remember that there are a variety of ways to reach a desired result. If you’re working with a client who has certain principle colors, you can suggest different tones and complementary shades with other colors that blend in nicely.

If you have a clean sheet of paper and are looking for some inspiration, there are numerous resources on the Web available to you. Several sites allow you to select different palettes or to view those that others have created before you. The power and creativity of these programs allow us to instantly see whether something looks pleasing to us or could “work” for a particular environment or site. Design programs work with a mixture of Pantone colors or hex codes and there are really an almost infinite number of variations available.

If you find that you need to turn to other sources for inspiration and discover a particularly interesting scheme through a random photograph, there are several different online tools that can help you to determine the actual code of the color that you like, also known as its hex value. In addition, design programs such as Adobe Photoshop or Corel Photo Paint can “sample” the color from a photograph or a scan and replicate it perfectly.

When you are surfing the web yourself, you may come across a website that you particularly like. The color scheme may be very attractive to you and you might be wondering what colors are represented. You guessed it – you can turn to a website that allows you to enter a particular URL and return the color value that is used.

Adam Toren, Co-Founder of Young Entrepreneur, specializes in improving the profitability of under-performing businesses with a unique and ‘bottom line’ program. Adam, along with his brother, have started, bought and sold several companies over the past years. They currently own and operate a successful publishing company and several online companies.