If your website looks unprofessional, then your business looks unprofessional and it can seriously damage your reputation.
Hey everyone! I’m Kelly, and today I’m going to show you how to transform your website from unprofessional to professional in a few easy steps.
Custom domain name
First of all, get a custom domain name. Having a domain like Ke**********@wo*******.com is nowhere near as professional as having KellySparkes.com, so always get your own domain name and link it up to your website.
Email
This goes for emails too. I’m always wary if I get an email from someone like Ke***@gm***.com when it’s supposed to be a business. It makes me instantly think, “Okay, this is not a professional business and I might not get what I’m paying for here.”
Favicon
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. Google’s is a little G, Asana has three dots, and the little red rectangle with the triangle in for YouTube is instantly recognizable. At a glance, I know if I click on that, I’m back to YouTube. The default WordPress icon is the world, so you want to change that to something that represents your business. For my client, Feraland, I created a little bird favicon for them, so it’s instantly recognizable. The same thing goes for 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.
Colours
Next, have a look at the colours on your website. Nothing screams ‘unprofessional website’ than lots of random colours, or far too many colours. As a rule of thumb, stick to three, and choose one to be your dominant colour. Make sure they’ll work well together and they’re a cohesive colour scheme. If you’re stuck and don’t understand colour, then just choose one and use different shades of that colour throughout your website.
Fonts
Having too many fonts can also make you look unprofessional. Choosing one main font and then a second for your headings, or for alternative sections on your website will make you look far more professional than using lots of different ones. When you do choose your fonts, make sure that they work together as a pairing.
Mobile devices
Make sure that your website is optimised for mobile devices. Nothing makes you look more unprofessional than a website that is all over the place when viewed on a mobile device. If I can’t see your buy button, I am certainly not going to click on it, so that should be very high up on your list of priorities. Using a tool like Elementor can make this simple.
Navigation
Keep your navigation simple, and always put your navigation where the user would expect to find it. If you have a site with a header at the top, you should put your navigation in there with any of your less important pages down in the footer. If you have a website with sidebar navigation, then pop it in there. Don’t hide your navigation or try to be clever with your navigation. Also, if you have multiple dropdown lists within your navigation (E.g. ‘Services’ and then five items underneath) try to list them in the main navigation section instead. Ask yourself whether you really need all those pages, because the simpler you can make it the better.
Simple and sleek
Carrying on with the simple theme, try to make your website simple all around. Have lots of ‘white space’ so it gives your design a chance to breathe. Ensure your copy is short and concise, as no one wants to read whole paragraphs of text and make sure you have checked it for spelling mistakes and grammar.
Images and videos
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) but you can still make sure you’re using stock photos that aren’t very obviously stock photos, and ones that represent your brand and the colours of your brand too. Where you can, use videos, as this tells a story and adds to the professionalism of your website.
Legal documents
Finally, make sure you have your legal documents on your website:
- Privacy policy
- Terms and conditions or your terms and use of the website.
All these make your business look more professional, especially the privacy policy, as it’s going to make visitors feel secure giving you their data and signing up, or sending you a message.
I hope this has helped you and made you think about how you could make your website look more professional.
