A professional website needs beautiful design and good content. But that is not all. It needs to look elegant and be user-friendly at the same time.
Your website represents your brand on the internet. So, it’s crucial that visitors find your website to be professional looking and easy to use. But oftentimes, businesses fail to design their websites in the right way.
Here are 5 tips to make your website look professional.
- Make your site easy to navigate
Don’t sacrifice good navigation for the sake of creativity. Have a navigation bar at the top of each page. The navigation bar should include links to all the important pages of your site. If your site has too many pages, you may use dropdowns.
Placing your logo at the top-left corner has become a standard practice. Clicking on the logo should take the visitor to the homepage. For long-scrolling sites, adding a back-to-top floating button at the bottom-right corner may be helpful.
The footer is also an important element for navigation. Place your social icons and additional important links, like Contact, FAQ, Terms etc here.
- Select a consistent color combination
Every professional website must have a consistent colour theme throughout its pages. When the user goes from one page to another, it shouldn’t appear that they have moved to a new website.
The colour theme you choose should fit your business type. For example, green colour tones might be good for a company focusing on eco-friendly products.
- Work with an experienced web design agency
An experienced website design company can help you make a professional looking website. Designing a professional looking website is complex. The standard tools like Squarespace, WordPress preset themes, Wix etc won’t let you customise your site enough to make it stand out from the crowd.
So, if you don’t have the time or expertise to design a professional looking website on your own, you should look for a web design company to do the job for you.
While there are lots of web design companies out there, you should choose one which is experienced and located near you. For example, if your business is in Melbourne, you may choose an agency which provides web design for Melbourne companies.
- Go for a simple homepage
People hardly read every word on your website. This is something you must remember while designing your home page. The aim of the homepage is to quickly make your visitor understand what the site is about. Use text in small chunks. Sophisticated background and big images will make your homepage look more attractive.
It’s good to use images or visual signals to communicate your points. Arrange the contents and images in a way that is beautiful to look at.
- Make your text easily readable
There are two aspects of readability that you need to ensure. First, the text of your website should be easily understandable. No fancy words, no jargon. Short sentences that compliments your visuals are the best. Visitors will usually just scan through your site. The text must be catchy or relevant enough to grab their attention.
The second aspect of readability is how you present your text. The contrast between the text and its background shouldn’t make the text hard to read. Also, choosing the right font matters a lot, which we describe in the next point.
- Choose the right font
Fancy fonts might be good for your logo or design. But not for the text. The font-type is a crucial aspect of any professional looking site.
There are basically two types of fonts – Serif and Sans Serif. The Serif fonts have extended pointy endings. An example is the Times New Roman. The Sans Serif fonts have no such extensions. Most designers agree that Sans Serif is the right choice for websites.
Don’t use too many different fonts on a single website. Having more than three different types of fonts on your site is not good.
The size of the font is another important thing. While 12pt is the standard size of fonts used in everyday writing, that is too small for websites. Anything less than 16 pt will make your site hard to read.
- Design for mobile
Your website must be optimised for small screens. Responsiveness has become a standard in the industry. Check every page, menu and button of your website from a mobile device. Make sure it delivers a similar user experience and maintains a visual coherence with the desktop site.
A professional looking website often determines the success of your business in this internet era. There are many other smaller design aspects that you need to keep an eye on to have a stunning site. However, the points we mentioned above will give you a good start in this regard.