If your website looks unprofessional, then this will make your business look unprofessional and it can seriously damage your reputation.
Which is why I’m going to show you how to transform your website from unprofessional to professional in a few easy steps!
1. Get a custom domain name
First of all, get a custom domain name.
Having a domain like KellySparkes@wordpress.com is nowhere near as professional looking as having KellySparkes.com.
So always get your own domain name and link it up to your website.
This also goes for emails too. I’m always a bit wary if I get any email from someone like Kelly@gmail.com when it’s supposed to be a business.
That makes me instantly think, “Okay, this is not a professional business and I might not actually get what I’m paying for here.”
2. Add a favicon to your website
The next thing to do is to add a favicon to your site. Favicons are these tiny little icons that show at the top of a web browser window.
If you watch the video above you can see Google’s favicon is a little ‘G’ and there are three little dots for Asana and the little red rectangle with the triangle in for YouTube. They’re instantly recognisable. I can tell at a glance what page I’ll be going onto if I click on it.
The WordPress default is a little world. So you’ll want to change that to something that represents your business.
And the same thing goes when your client adds your site to a bookmark. It looks far more professional if your icon is shown next to the name of your business.
3. Use consistent colours
Next, have a look at the colours on your website. Nothing screams non-professional website quite like lots of random colours, or too many colours.
So as a rule of thumb, stick to three and choose one to be your dominant colour.
Make sure that the colours work well together and that they’re a cohesive colour scheme. And if you’re really stuck and don’t really understand colour, then just have one colour and use different shades of that colour throughout your website.
You might find these two blogs helpful:
4. Use consistent fonts
And the next one in a similar vein is the fonts. Having too many fonts can also make you look unprofessional.
Choose one main font, and then a second one for your headings or for alternative sections on your website.
This will make you look far more professional than using lots of different ones. And when you do choose your fonts, make sure that they work together as a pairing.
5. Optimise your website for mobile devices
So many people access websites via their mobile phone now. So, you need to make sure that your website is optimised for mobile devices.
A website that is all over the place when viewed on a mobile device, will make you look very unprofessional. And if your customers can’t see your ‘buy’ button then they certainly are not going to click on it!
So that should be very high up on your list of priorities, and using a tool like Elementor can make this super simple.
6. Keep your navigation simple
Your navigation is not the place to get fancy. You should always put your navigation where the user would expect to find it eg. the header.
Don’t hide your navigation or try to be clever with it.
Any pages that are of less importance can go in the footer. Try not to have loads of drop down lists in your navigation.
The simpler you can make it the better.
7. Make your website simple
And that goes for everything. Make your website as simple as possible.
Have lots of white space to give you design space to breathe. Make sure that your copy is short and concise, no one wants to read huge paragraphs of text. And make sure you’ve checked for spelling mistakes and grammar.
Don’t overcomplicate things. It doesn’t make you look more professional.
8. Use high quality images
High quality photos and videos will also make you look more professional. I appreciate not everyone can afford a brand photographer to come and take some shots for their website although that is ideal.
However, if you can’t hire a professional photographer, then please make sure you are using stock images, that aren’t obviously stock images.
And make sure that the images you do use really represent your brand and the colours of your brand as well.
Plus, where you can, use videos as this really tells a story and really adds to professionalism of your website.
9. Have your legal documents on your website
And finally, make sure that you have your legal documents on your website. Include things like your privacy policy, terms and conditions and terms and use of the website.
All of these things make your business look more professional. And especially things like a privacy policy, they’re going to make visitors feel secure giving you their data and signing up or sending you a message.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this and feel inspired to transform your website into a professional looking beauty!
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