Does Font Colour & Size Impact SEO?

Does font colour and font size impact SEO and how can you make the best web design choices to improve your SEO efforts?

If, like most marketers, you are constantly looking for ways to gain a competitive advantage over your competition. From understanding the impact of spelling and grammar, to tweaking minute on-page details to understand their affects, you wouldn’t be an SEO enthusiast without trying to understand how small details can have a big impact on rankings.

As such, there’s a good chance you have pondered these questions when looking over your competitor’s website:

• Are my competitors using a better font colour for SEO?
• Is there a perfect font colour for SEO?
• Does background colour impact SEO?
• What size font should I be using?
• Is this font readable across all devices?

As SEO professionals, we are always on the lookout for the small changes that can have a big impact on SEO rankings. As such, we have been looking into the correlation between rankings, font size, font colour, and background colour to determine the best font colour to use for SEO.

In this article we’ll explore whether font colour and font size impact SEO and what you can do to ensure your web design choices do not inhibit your ability to rank in Google search.

Does Font Colour Impact SEO?

Let’s get this one out of the way early on – does font colour impact SEO rankings?

No, the font colour that you use does not directly impact your SEO rankings. John Mueller even confirmed it in response to a Tweet back in 2020:

“The choice of font doesn’t matter for SEO — use one that works for your site :)” – John Mueller, Google Search Advocate

However, font should always be readable and accessible to users. For instance, hiding large chunks of white text against a white background or attempting to “hide” text on the page can impact your search rankings.

Keep it simple, choose core colours that stand out against the background that you are using. If your background is white or light grey, then use a black font that is easy for visitors to read. Conversely, if you have a black background on your webpage, then use a white font that is easy to read.

How Can I Make Sure Font Colour Does Not Impact SEO?

Make sure navigational links are clickable – if you have clickable links on your page or in your top menu, ensure that they look like they are clickable. Most themes will have a default colour like orange, red, or blue that stands out against a black or grey primary font colour. Hiding your clickable links is frustrating for users and can lead to users visiting a lower number of pages each session which can, in turn, impact SEO rankings.

Don’t overdo text colours and sizes – web pages with multiple font colours, sizes, and styles can be overwhelming for users and lead to a higher bounce rate. Think early 2000s web pages where green font against a black background was common practice. Websites with simple headings and consistent font size are naturally more approachable and are more likely to retain users. Furthermore, websites that use dozens of different fonts, font sizes, and font colours will typically have slower load times than those that limit it to a select number.

Worry about contrast, not colour – make sure that the font colour stands out against the background that you choose. Choosing the right font colour comes down to the colour of your background, not just the colour of the font. Make sure that the font colour stands out against the background.

Does Font Size Impact SEO?

Font size can indirectly impact your SEO – but just like font colour, it comes down to choosing a font size that works for your website across all devices.

If you’ve read anything about Google updates over the last 18-months, you’ll know that Google is continually making updates to improve user experience. From the Helpful Content Update earlier this year, to Google’s Page Experience Update, Google is constantly pushing website owners to create a better on-site experience for users.

Choosing the right font size for your website comes down to one key metric – usability. The font size on your website isn’t a ranking factor in and of itself, rather, it is an important component in creating a good onsite experience for your users.

So, when choosing the font size for your website here are some important factors to keep in mind:

Cross-device readability – make sure that text sizes make sense on desktop and on mobile devices.

Differentiate between headings – ensure that there is a clear difference between the size of headings and the size of paragraph text.

Stick to a minimum 16px/12pt – This is the minimum size that is required to be considered mobile-friendly by Google. Remember, Google is using your mobile version in mobile-first indexing, so it needs to be mobile friendly and accessible.

Final Thoughts

Font colour and font size are not in and of themselves ranking factors. However, choosing the right font size and font colour are two important considerations that can impact website usability, on-site experience, and indirectly impact your SEO rankings. So, before you choose a core font size and colour for your website, make sure that you test it (extensively) across a range of devices for usability.