What Makes A Professional Website: The Basic Essentials
A professional website is the first step in marketing yourself or your business online. Building a website is not that hard. These days, website builder services make it super easy. But what about building a website that looks professional? That’s a little more challenging. But it’s not impossible.
In this post, we’ll go over some of the ways you can take your unprofessional-looking website and give it a facelift.
What makes a website professional?
Professionalism is all about respect and quality. So it’s important to always make sure your website is up to snuff! First of all, you need to realize that a website can be professional in a lot of different ways. One website’s goal might be completely different from another’s goal and that changes what might be professional based on who will be visiting the website. A website promoting a children’s TV show might look and feel completely different than a Fortune 500 company’s website. The only thing they should have that they all have in common is that they should be built in a way so that the website is dependable, usable, and fast. Professionalism, then, has less to do with what it looks like and more to do with the technology used to make it work.
Professional design principles
The first way to take your website from unprofessional to professional is by building it according to professional design principles. 1. Pick a good typeface. Fonts have the power to make or break your design. In fact, a good typeface can turn an unprofessional-looking website into a professional-looking one. For example, some of the popular sans serif typefaces include Comic Sans, Helvetica, and Serif. Most of them look awkward and amateurish when paired together, but when placed side-by-side, they give your website a professional, professional look. You can even make your typeface match your website’s layout and design to further bolster its professionalism. For example, if your website is a one-page blog, you could use a big bold typeface.
The Color Scheme
The first thing you should do when designing a professional website is to pick a color scheme. In case you don’t already know, a color scheme is the combination of colors that a designer or web designer associates with certain features of a site. When web designers discuss color schemes in a web design book, they’ll talk about a color scheme for the site and how they create their color scheme. They’ll talk about the basic rules of color scheme: Lack of color makes a web page look serious and unapproachable. Use too much color, however, and it can distract visitors and cause them to lose focus. Yellow is the least distracting color, which is why it’s often used in web design schemes for serious and professional sites.
The Design
A professional website should be designed for users in order to keep the most important information to the top, making it easy to find and navigate. For example, important business contact information would be in the top right-hand corner above the fold. The color scheme is also key. The most important colors are ones that you wouldn’t accidentally overlook and can be used to draw people’s eyes to a particular part of a page. A professional website should also have a sleek, professional look with a cohesive layout. The site shouldn’t be cluttered with flashy animations and colors; it needs to look professional and professional means it has to look professional. Simple but elegant design, colors, and fonts are a must.
The Layout
Most professional sites have a standard layout. While no two websites look exactly the same, there are some basic building blocks that all professional websites follow. These elements include: a logo, header, and footer. Your site might have an old-school blog design, a content management system, or even a custom web page theme. There are many different ways to approach a design but it’s important to know the basics. Your website’s layout determines how it’s displayed on every screen. The more manageable your layout is, the less work you have to do to customize it. A responsive and fluid layout is one of the simplest ways to add a professional touch to your site.
Professional design practices
For most businesses, their website is one of the primary points of access for customers, and therefore, of primary value. If you don’t make sure that you are sending the right messages, your website might cause your business to lose the chance to reach the right customers, and your clients will be less likely to make purchases. Think of your website as the window to your business, and your customers as your potential customers. They are the ones who will come in and decide if they want to buy from you or not. Of course, you don’t want your website to look too formal or too corporate, but you also don’t want it to look like a college project. You need to be on the line between these two extremes: The website should be simple and understandable and make your business’ value and function clear.