A professional website is the necessity in today’s world for any business.
If you don’t have one then you’re missing out on a very important channel
that people can use to discover about your business. The days of telephone
directories are gone and today people search for businesses on internet. So
it’s important for your business to be present on this channel, and that
too in a professional manner. You need not just any website but a genuine
and professional looking website. And here we’re going to tell you how to
get it in 9 steps. Let’s see:
Table of Contents
#1. Get a professional logo and brand identity
A professional website starts from a
professional logo
and brand identity. Your logo appears on the top of your website, so it’s
important that it looks good. It’ll be better if you get it designed from a
professional logo designer. If you’re trying to create a strong brand, then
it becomes even more important to get your logo designed along with your
brand identity. This will also help you in selecting a theme and color
scheme for your site.
#2. Use a premium theme
The look and experience of your website is determined by the theme that you
use, so it’s important to choose a good theme for your site. I would
suggest that you go with a premium theme, because premium themes come with
stunning design, lots of customization options and developer support. You
can also get a custom theme developed for your site by a developer, if you
can afford it. But the bottom line is that whichever theme you choose, it
should be professional and polished.
#3. Use large images
If images are worth a thousand words, large and prominently placed images
are worth ten thousand words. They’re the new trend in websites, and
they’re here to stay because they look good and draw the attention of
visitors quickly. So you may consider using them wherever possible in a
creative manner to increase the professionalism of your website. You can
also consider the use of some background images.
#4. Use videos (wherever possible)
Like images, videos are also a much better way of delivering any
information than text.
Research says
that by the end of 2019 video traffic will make up to 80% of consumer
traffic. There are many things that can be conveyed properly with help of
videos alone. Moreover, you can also use videos created for your website to
market your products/services on other social media platforms like YouTube,
Twitter and Facebook. So if you can afford to create some professional
videos, don’t hesitate from including them in your website.
#5. Install an SSL certificate
It’s a must for any website to load over HTTPS. Websites that don’t meet
this standard are flagged as ‘Not Secure’ by the web browsers. Heck, you
will also be ranked below your competitors in search results. Clearly,
these are not some things that suit any professional website. Not only they
make your visitors feel unsafe on your site but also they give a feeling
that you’re not concerned about the security of your customers. So,
purchase an SSL certificate from reputed SSL
provider and get it installed on your web server.
#6. Avoid unnecessary elements
When we talk about professionalism, less is more. Creating a professional
website is not about adding too many fancy elements. Instead, it’s about
minimizing the presence of unnecessary elements. You can take help of a
professional copy editor to identify the elements that can be removed, but
if you need some basic rules of thumb then here they’re:
l Don’t include more than one video on homepage (or any page, if possible)
l Never put too much information in one page. Instead, divide it into
multiple pages and keep every page as to-the-point as possible.
l Avoid using animations and other similar fancy elements which add no
tangible value.
#7. Make your site load faster
Your site should also load quickly if it must feel professional. Sites that
take too much time to load not only create an unpleasant experience for the
visitors but also hurt their SEO. Again, it’s necessary to remove the
unnecessary elements. Too many javascripts, images or other files can
reduce the loading speed of your site
, so keep them minimal. You can also consider the use of caching to make
your site load faster.
#8. Optimize for mobile
This one is basic – everybody knows that people are more on their mobile
devices nowadays than they’re on their computers, so it makes sense to
optimize your site for mobile. Without proper mobile optimization your site
can’t provide a good experience to two-thirds of your visitors, as they’re
highly likely to use a mobile device for visiting it at some point. So
whether it’s by the use of a responsive theme or by the creation of a
separate mobile site – ensure that your whole website is optimized for
mobile users.
#9. Include a chatbot
Chatbots are the modern method of communication with businesses. They’re
being used by more and more businesses every day, because they allow
customers to contact a business in real-time. You too can consider adding
them to your site. It’ll give a feeling to your customers that they’re
dealing with a genuine business. But keep in mind that if you add a
chatbot, you should fix a time during which you’re going to be online to
answer the queries of your users. That time frame should also be mentioned
by the chatbot whenever someone tries to contact you at a time when you’re
offline.
Conclusion
These 9 steps can take you a long way when it comes to creating a
professional website. But don’t try to implement these steps yourself
unless you’re yourself a professional at the step that you’re implementing,
otherwise you may mess it up. Professional websites that give a great
experience to every visitor are made not by one person but by a team of
professionals. All the best!
