Looking gorgeous doesn’t necessarily mean the site looks professional. In fact, lots of websites that are pleasing to the eyes do not really create a good impression on potential customers and business partners. Some of them even get turned off by them or even suffer from visual overload.
No potential customers or business partners would ever put their trust in a site that looks like it was done by an amateur who’s best effort looks thrown together. Websites have to look professional on all levels, and here are some tips to do just that.
Keep the design simple
Some websites are overdone with borders, drop shadows, and colours. When you have a website that’s committing visual overkill, visitors will have a hard time looking at, and consequently, staying with it.
“In an era where minimalism is spreading far and wide, web designers should adopt a more minimalist approach to their work. Instead of adding lots of flashy elements to a site, they should have plenty of white space, which gives your design elements more breathing room. Without white space or any negative space, your site would look uncomfortable and cramped, which would hardly be considered professional. Bill, CEO, Project 320”
Make navigation easy
While we’re on the subject of simplicity, let’s put it out there that great overall user experience should be a goal. One of the best ways to achieve that is to design a site in a way that makes navigation simple. Site visitors, after all, tend to be always in a hurry and want to find things fast. If the website is not well-organized, people tend to get lost in the clutter and end up bouncing off to another site out of frustration. A well-organized site is easily navigable, and a site that’s easy to navigate is as professional as it can get.
Write first-rate copy
Some people may think that the copy is not really part of the design, but anything written on any page of your website plays a crucial role in making a website look professional even when they’re “only” words and letters.
In written communications in the real world, the quality of your writing speaks a ton about your level of professionalism. The same thing applies to what is written on the pages of your website. If the content is replete with awkwardly-written sentences and grammatical errors, any potential customer or business partner who reads them would make judgments about your professionalism based on those words, and they will quickly turn away if your copy is anything but first-rate.
Writing may not be that easy, but you have to do whatever you can to make the quality of your copy excellent. Hiring a professional writer would be a good idea to make sure your content is well-written.
Use the proper fonts
Fonts may be just letters, but they can alter the way your website looks and feels. If you are aiming for a more distinctive but professional look, then use fonts that match your business’ style and culture. Of course, companies that sell something fun and entertaining should use fonts that represent these qualities. On the flip-side would be more formal fonts that convey the spirit of whatever product or service your business is offering.
Aside from using the proper types of fonts, it would also be wise to use fonts properly. For example, headings, subheadings, titles, and other essential information should use larger fonts. It’s also important to choose fonts that are easy on the eyes. A visitor will quickly exit a website that uses fonts that are too tiny to see or read.
Use big, high-quality images
Sure, large images may affect your site’s speed, but they do make your website stand out. When you implement big, high-quality, beautiful imagery both in the overall design of your site and as part of a landing page, your site will look very professional. Big and high-quality images will draw users in and eventually result in leads and conversions later on.
Colours must be coordinated
How you use colours on your website can impact your overall design. You can’t just choose colours you like and throw them all in together. You have to make sure that the colours you choose mesh well together. If you take the psychology of colour into consideration, it’s also important that the colours you use would be representative of what the website’s business is all about.
Put in just one CTA (Call To Action)
Have you ever been to a market? It’s typical for most vendors in one place there to call out to everybody in a bid to attract customers. A website with multiple calls to action is essentially that scenario’s online equivalent, and it seems so unprofessional. Because of so many CTAs, visitors get confused and end up not taking any kind of action at all.
Ideally, a website should only have one main CTA to make it easy for visitors to take action without other choices messing things up. With a highly visible placement and graphical accents that will surely catch the attention of users, a single main CTA will make your site appear more professional.
Make your site responsive
In a world where Google already ranks a website based on its mobile version before anything else, it’s only logical for you to have a website that is mobile responsive. You may have the most beautifully-designed website, but if it does not display well on mobile devices, the public perception of your professionalism will certainly take a hit. How can they trust a company that doesn’t care enough about mobile users—who have long outnumbered desktop users by the way—to make their site look good and perform well on smartphones and tablets?
With a responsive web design, users will have a consistent experience with your website regardless of what screen they use. Being easily accessible across all platforms makes a website a consummate professional in the eyes of users everywhere.
These are just some of the ways that can make your website look more professional. Implement them, and elevate your business’ professional reputation across the Internet.
www.inabubble.co.za –design@inabubble.co.za – 081 8244132
Article credited to: https://linchpinseo.com/tips-to-make-your-web-design-look-more-professional/
