Have you had the experience of a jarring feeling the minute 
certain websites download onto your screen? Too bright, too 
cluttered, too many links, clashing colors or dark brooding 
colors? If you want your own website to impact your visitors 
in a pleasant and well-balanced way, then you should explore 
Feng Shui. Feng Shui is an ancient Chinese art that provides 
simple architectural guidelines to design and arrange 
objects or structures in a harmonious way in a home or a 
business environment. Feng Shui principles help to maximize 
the sense of well being of people who use these spaces. In 
recent times Feng Shui has found its way into Internet 
design. The Internet is also a space to begin with and a 
space through which business is generated.

The philosophy of Feng Shui is built around the concept of 
Chi, which means ‘vital energy’ or ‘life force’. The Feng 
Shui principles of harmony create positive flows of Chi in 
living spaces. Most Chinese businesses apply Feng Shui 
principles when they design their premises and in the United 
States businesses have also woken up to the positive effects 
of chi in the work place. And now, it’s the turn of the 
online space where the concept is still very new. 

Feng Shui for website design:

Many of the principles in Feng Shui can have a positive 
impact on your online business. The choice of colors and 
shapes, placement of lines and content are some of the main 
design elements of Feng Shui for websites. 

7 easy steps: 

1. Choose colors and shapes that complement your area of business 

1. Colors and shapes in Feng Shui represent five elements - 
earth, water, fire, wood and metal.  

A. Earth is associated with yellow and square/rectangular 
shapes. The element earth represents reliability. It can be 
a good choice for a website. You do find smatterings of 
yellow at prominent sites like amazon.com and aol.com. 

B. Though black and deep dark colors represents water and are 
often used in physical spaces to bring about relaxation by 
placing fountains, mirrors and reflective glass surfaces, 
you may not get a similar effect online. Dark colors may not 
have a tranquil or relaxing impact especially if a lot of it 
is used on a web page. However, shades of medium-dark blue 
are widely seen on thousands of websites.  

C. Red is naturally associated with fire. The color red 
creates enthusiasm and is a good color for websites to 
incorporate without going overboard with it, because too 
much fire could lead to impatience in visitors. Triangular 
shapes represent fire. Purple and deep shades of orange are 
also colors of the element fire. 

D. Green which is associated with the element wood is a safe 
and optimistic color since it represents a lot of positives 
that are relevant for websites like trust, openness and 
flexibility. Wood is represented by plants and plants are of 
course relevant to offline spaces.

E. Metal stands for circular, oval or semi-circular arched 
shapes. The colors that represent metal are white and 
pastels. Metal is associated with intensity, clarity and 
perseverance.  On the flip side, too much metal is likely to 
lead to procrastination -The use of too much metal (too much 
pastel or too many circular shapes) on your website may 
influence customers to put off a decision to buy.

2. Reduce the lines and dividers on your website

Do you have too many lines and dividers on your site?  If 
there are too many lines that horizontally and vertically 
divide a web page to cram in a variety of information, this 
type of placement could serve as blocks for the positive 
flow of chi and this means the visitor to the site may feel 
kind of out-of-sorts with the various compartments of 
information that he or she has to sift through.

3. Avoid large empty spaces on your web pages

 In any room a long length of wall that is dormant and 
unused is filled up with potted plants or some decorative 
object against the wall by those who practice Feng Shui. If 
you have considerable unused space on your website, a 
relevant visual or graphic can break the monotony and 
improve positive chi on the page. 

Google used to have a lot of wasted space along the right 
hand side in their search results. Their business idea to 
have text ads relevant to the search topic placed in that 
area is supposed to be quite a success with advertisers.

4. Avoid clutter, it leads to negative energy

Clutter on a web page could drive away the positive chi. Not 
just too many lines and information, but also too many 
links, too much copy and too many banners can add to the 
clutter on a page. 

5. Explore protective symbols with a Feng Shui consultant

The Pa Kua is a symbol in Feng Shui that has the power to 
deflect ‘secret poison arrows’.  A poison arrow is negative 
energy. Also known as Sha Chi, it is likened to a sudden 
landslide, hurricane or flash flood that is unpredictable 
and dangerous.  The Pa Kua symbol is an eight-sided figure 
believed to project a protective influence against poison 
arrows. A Pa Kua mirror is generally placed at the main door 
of a home to deflect negative energy. Several business 
websites are targeted by malicious people who send out a 
virus with the intent of crippling their servers. Microsoft 
and software group SCO have been recently targeted by a 
virus which succeeded in crashing the SCO website. 

While it is tempting to place the Pa Kua symbol on your 
website to ward off any negatives in your business, it is 
generally not advisable without consulting an expert. 

6. Ensure that your site is easy to navigate 

If the separating walls in an office environment are too 
many, this affects the sequence of movement for employees 
and it also apparently makes the area look smaller than it 
actually is. Ease of movement creates positive chi and this 
applies online too.

Positive chi is created when visitors are able to find the 
information they are looking for easily and are able to move 
effortlessly across the various pages on your web site.  
 
7. Use Feng Shui with caution and wisely: Many symbols and 
placements in Feng Shui can create a negative effect if used 
incorrectly

While it is good to read and understand Feng Shui 
guidelines, before you actually incorporate these principles 
onto your website it is a good idea to consult a  
practitioner or do more research. Wrong placements could 
lead to negative chi and the customer experience on your 
website could be considerably less satisfactory. 
You can revitalize your business website through Feng Shui

Positive chi could drive traffic and increase the frequency 
of customers returning to your site. More traffic and repeat 
visits also means the potential for more sales.
With the right help you can use Feng Shui to revitalize your 
website and improve the customer experience on your site 
through positive energy and harmony. Try it, the results may 
surprise you.