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Having a website for your business is a great way to make sure that your business has a presence online, so that you can spread the word and show off all of your products and services.
A business website does require a certain level of professionalism, so that people will take you and your products seriously. If you want people to interact with your site and hopefully buy from it then they need to trust you as a business.
So, how do we get your website to be trustworthy and professional? That’s what this article will help you achieve this.
One of the most important things to have considered before going ahead with the rest of the tips in the article is what message are you trying to send with your brand and to your customers.
The brand message will play a large role in how you will communicate with your website. How you go about finding your brand message is actually very easy. You probably have some idea of what you want people to think about your business, so you just need to find the words for it.
What do you want people to think when they think about your brand? Is it about having fun, is it more of a luxury service or product or is it a third thing? Try writing some words down that describe your brand.
What task or needs do you want to fulfill? What is it that you have and can do that people need? Do you want to make someone’s life easier, more accessible or more fun? Is there a specific thing that you do.
It is also important to think about the industry you are part of. What are other companies doing and how can you show that you are in the same one whilst still trying to stand out? Are there specific elements, colors or similar that is particularly relevant for you?
Once you have found your message you can go onto trying to show it on your site. One big part of trying to get your website look professional and be easy to understand is with your design.
A professional design is usually very simple both in its colors and the overall amount of content on your site. Simplicity makes it easy to get a clear picture of the website and makes it easier to navigate for your visitors.
Choosing the colors for your website is a very big part of this. What colors you want to use can vary a lot depending on a number of factors. It is important to think about what is common place for your products/services or industry and take that into account.
You can also look at color theory as a whole to determine what you want to say with the colors in your design. Here is where your message comes in. Usually blue is a very good color for showing professionalism and seriousness, but it might be more relevant for you use green if you want to be seen as more natural or orange/yellow if you want to be seen as more happy and energized.
You can pick a color depending on a lot of factors, but going with one that fits your message will help you a lot. Yellow won’t be less professional than blue if yellow fits more with your brand. It will instead show an understanding and an authenticity to yourself.
If you want to create a simple design then there is a very straightforward approach when it comes to picking colors.
It is always a good idea to play around with a few different colors and combinations to see if you can find one that works for you.
Keeping simplicity in design also means not over saturating your page with content and different elements but giving the different elements room to breathe and be seen without having the user be distracted by 15 other elements in the same frame.
Keep your text short and put a little space between the different sections so the users can take the time to understand as they scroll.
Another big part of looking professional is the tone that you take in your communication. It might seem like using a very formal tone is the logical solution to look professional and like an expert, but it can also end up scaring your customers away if that isn’t what is appropriate with your audience.
Sometimes looking professional means matching the tone of your audience and sometimes you can look more like an expert if you have the ability to explain something complicated in everyday words.
It is about balance because you don’t want to seem like you are talking down to your users, but you also want to seem knowledgeable about the thing that you are an expert on.
It is important to always have your users in mind.
The images you use on your site says a lot about you. You want images that look and feel professional. So it might take a little time to find the ones that are right for you. Images are one of the hardest things to find the perfect version, that can balance quality with not having image files so large that it takes forever to load.
Load time for your website can significantly increase with images on your website, but a site without images is very boring. So it is important to include images, but in a way that is mindful off not needlessly slowing down your site.
Finding images that are of a good quality but not too large can take a little while to perfect. But it is time well spend.
Looking at user experience can also be a good idea for making your website more professional. Having a website that is more user-friendly will make the users enjoy using it more.
Navigation is a big part of having a good user experience as it needs to be simple and intuitive to get around on your site and find the information that is relevant and that the user is looking for. This can be something as simple as making sure it is clear where you go if you click a button and easy to go back and forth as needed.
It is also important to have a good speed and load time on your site, as most people don’t want to sit around very long for a site to load.
Your website also needs to work. If the user ends up getting 404 messages as they try to access a page or that they can’t get access to certain things that they should. Then they will get frustrated and leave before they can finish what they are doing.
It is important to make your website simple, easy and intuitive to use.
You also need to establish your credibility for people to feel confident in trusting what you have to say. There are many ways to do this but one of the most used is through reviews. This can be done by you dedicating a part of your site to showcase what people have said about your website, services or products or by displaying a Trustpilot page. People tend to trust other users and are more likely to engage with you and your content if they know others have had a positive experience doing so.
It can also be a good idea to show a physical presence for your company. You can showcase as many reviews and words on your website, but one of the things that people will trust the most is evidence that you are physically a company and that they can reach you if they need to.
This can mean showing of things like a phone number and email address or a physical address if you have that. This will help you build up the trust that you are a real company.
You can also show yourself off by building an ‘About us’ page to showcase yourselves or your journey. Here it isn’t as important to stay the most professional, but show the more human side of the company. Show yourself and your goals for the company.
It is very important to make sure to continuously check if your website functions the way that it is supposed to. This is important for both the SEO and the experience of your site. SEO will rank you better if the functions and links on your site works.
The user experience will also be a lot better if you aren’t stopped every few clicks because the links aren’t working or you get directed to the wrong place. It naturally also looks more professional if the it works.
So make sure to make it a regular thing to go through your website and see if everything works the way that it should. Especially if you change or add something.
Looking more professional on your website can mean a lot of things depending on what kind of business you run and the industry you work in. Keeping it simple and authentic to you is always a good start. Take some time to really think about your design, tone and the user experience of your site, then add a couple of elements to build up your credibility and make sure to regularly checking that your website functions like it’s supposed to and you will be well on your way to a more professional website.
