How Should You Choose Colors for a Landing Page? | How to Use Colors to Guide Attention to the CTA

The colors on a landing page (LP)—a web page designed to guide visitors toward a particular action, such as requesting information or signing up—need to do more than make a button stand out. They should help readers move from an explanation to a well-informed decision. A CTA (call to action) is a prompt or button inviting that next step. This guide looks at how background, heading, and CTA colors can play distinct roles throughout the page.

Choose one primary CTA before assigning colors

Suppose a business service wants visitors to select “Get a Free Guide” as the main action. One approach is to repeat the same CTA in the hero section (the first section visitors see), after the benefits, and after pricing information or frequently asked questions. Keeping its label and color consistent helps visitors recognize that each button leads to the same action.

Because backgrounds cover large areas, start with a pale color with low saturation (how vivid or muted a color appears). Use a darker, restrained color for headings. For the CTA, a warm accent with a different hue (a basic color family such as red or blue) can distinguish the action from the surrounding headings. However, color alone cannot establish reading order: the sequence of information, spacing, and button placement matter too.

Before asking someone to download a guide, explain what it contains, whether it costs anything, and what information the form requires. A strong CTA color should support that decision, not distract from the details needed to make it.

A landing-page palette that leads from content to a guide request

Imagine an LP with a service overview, customer examples, and frequently asked questions. HEX codes are hexadecimal values used to specify web colors. The following colors each have a clear purpose.

• Overall page background: very pale gray ■#F8FAF9. Use this quiet foundation across larger areas to prevent the sections from feeling visually busy.
• Pricing and case-study cards: white ■#FFFFFF. It contrasts with the pale gray background ■#F8FAF9 by only about 1.05:1, so also separate cards with spacing or borders.
• Benefits and FAQ panels: pale teal ■#E9F2F0. Use it to group related information without spreading the strong CTA color across entire sections.
• Explanatory text: deep charcoal ■#28333A. Its contrast ratio is about 12.33:1 on pale gray ■#F8FAF9 and 11.34:1 on pale teal ■#E9F2F0.
• Headings and ordinary text links: deep blue-green ■#245C63. It offers about 7.19:1 on pale gray ■#F8FAF9 and 7.54:1 on white ■#FFFFFF. Give links underlines as an additional cue.
• Supporting information: muted blue-gray ■#536A70. It has about 5.73:1 contrast on white ■#FFFFFF, so details about the guide or any conditions do not become too faint.
• Form-field borders: medium gray ■#708589. Against the white input surface ■#FFFFFF, its contrast ratio is about 3.89:1; against the surrounding pale teal ■#E9F2F0, it is about 3.41:1.
• “Get a Free Guide” CTA: deep terracotta ■#A4492C behind white ■#FFFFFF text. The text contrast ratio is about 5.89:1. The button background also contrasts by approximately 5.61:1 with the pale gray surrounding surface ■#F8FAF9.

The same CTA color appears at the introduction, after the benefits, and near the final decision point. Other links stay in a quieter blue-green. The goal is to make the main action recognizable without turning every part of the sales explanation into a bright highlight.

How to keep the CTA visible without adding more colors

Alternating the background color in every section—or styling “Contact Us,” “Get a Free Guide,” and “Book a Call” as equally strong buttons in the same view—can make the main action harder to identify. Keep the primary CTA’s wording and appearance consistent, and use underlined text links or other quieter treatments for secondary actions.

If you place a heading or CTA over a photo or gradient, the contrast can change across the image. Consider a solid-color panel around the CTA. On phones, check whether its explanatory text stays close enough to the button and whether the full button label remains visible. Do not assume that changing a color will automatically increase sign-ups; review real visitor behavior if you need to evaluate performance.

Under WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) 2.2 Level AA, normal-sized text needs at least a 4.5:1 contrast ratio against its background, and large text needs at least 3:1. Essential non-text indicators such as the borders defining form inputs need at least 3:1 against adjacent colors. The pairs above have been checked against these thresholds, but any change to the colors or layout calls for a fresh contrast check.