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Do-it-yourself websites offer many benefits. Your site is yours to control, you can customize it to your liking, and you can save money. It can be difficult to create professional-looking websites that can compete with professionally-built sites.
If you are willing to take the time and learn some web design best practices, your site will look great. These tips can be applied even if you don’t have any experience in creating websites, especially with WordPress.
This post will introduce you to ten elements that you can use to enhance your online presence.
Ten ways to make DIY sites look professional
It can be tempting to use bright, eye-catching colors to make striking pages when you have complete control over your design. This can make it overwhelming to just look at your website. Professional designers know how to limit the color palette to maximize impact.
Your brand’s color can speak volumes about you. If your website is too cluttered with colors, it can create a feeling of indecisiveness and disorganization. Choose one primary color and an accent color. Then stick to neutrals. Coolors is a tool that can quickly help you create color schemes.
To help you make the right color choices is a guide to web color schemes.
To avoid cluttered pages or posts, leave plenty of white space
Whitespace refers to the empty spaces on your website’s pages. These spaces may not necessarily be white (negative space is another description), but they help keep your site’s pages from appearing cluttered or confusing to visitors.
A cleaner design makes it easier for users to find what they are looking for once they land on your website. This design strategy can be used to your advantage by directing visitors to the Buy Now or Subscribe buttons.
To ensure that you can read the text, choose a legible font
Graphic lettering and fancy scripts may seem like an added professional element. Don’t confuse professionalism and cost. It doesn’t necessarily mean that a custom font will cost you a lot. Instead, prioritize legibility:
Your site won’t be read by your visitors no matter how flashy your typography is. Your website should be focused on its main purpose, which is to provide information.
Pair two fonts together for best results.
To give authenticity, add high-quality photos of yourself
Images can be a great way to improve the content of your website. Stock photos are not a good idea. Here, quality is more important than quantity. Photos of your own photos are more authentic and help to build trust with your customers.
You don’t want to put a poor-quality selfie on your website. Low-quality images can also negatively impact the user’s perception of your website. Pay attention when posting and taking photos.
Clear navigation and search functionality are important to ensure visitors can find the information they seek
Your site must be easy to navigate, no matter how many pages it has. Visitors visit your site to find information. If they don’t find the answer they seek, they will leave. Clear Navigation is crucial.
Users will be able to find what they need quickly by adding easy-to-use navigation. Site search functionality is a great way to help users quickly locate pages and posts anywhere on your website.
To build trust and loyalty, create a well-written About Page
When it comes to content for your website, you should be thinking about building a home page or providing information about your brand’s products and services. Your About page is also a crucial part of your website.
You can humanize your brand by sharing its story, mission, and values to build trust and loyalty. This will give you an advantage over your competitors as people are more likely to stay with brands that share their values.
To increase your conversion rate, incorporate Call to Action buttons (CTA)
You should make it as simple as possible for customers to convert if you want to increase conversions. Many professional websites include CTA buttons such as Sign up, Register, or Buy Now.
You can add buttons to your WordPress DIY website easily using the Block Editor. It’s easy to add actionable, converting elements to your mailing list, memberships, and products.
To build brand recognition, keep your headers consistent with your footers
Your brand is the first thing your customers think of when they need a product/service. This is why brand awareness is so important. It is a smart way to make a lasting impression on your visitors by using the same header/footer across all your sites.
It is especially useful if the logo of your brand is included within one or both of these content areas. This is an important part of your website’s identity and the key to creating a brand.
Mobile responsiveness is a priority to reach more users
You know how frustrating it is to be unable to read a website on your mobile phone because the text is too large or small. If your mobile site doesn’t adapt to its screen size, users will feel the same.
This is an important element that you shouldn’t overlook. Mobile search has become a major source of conversions and responsiveness is factored into Google’s algorithm. Although making your WordPress website mobile-responsive was difficult in the past, it is possible now with almost every theme. Our entire collection looks great on mobile devices. However, there are many to choose from.
To make it easy for users to get in touch, provide contact forms that are simple to use
Easy access to contact information for a brand, such as an email, phone number, and address, is another feature that professional websites share in common. You can make it easier for people to contact you by creating a contact form.
This form can be displayed on its own page, in your footer, or sidebar to make it easy to access. You can create forms in WordPress using a variety of plugins, including Contact form 7 and Gravity forms. Elementor page builders include tools that help you build forms. Jetpack plugins also provide basic functionality to display forms.
