Features that all professional websites need
Having a strong online presence – a landing page or website – can be make or break generating more revenue. Yes, the quality of your website impacts results and this is what I will be sharing with you here. Some simple things to keep in mind as you decide what you want to have as part of your online real estate.
“Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.” —Steve Jobs, co-founder, chairman, and CEO of Apple Inc.
Custom domain and professional email set up
The first step in setting up your website is to choose and purchase your domain name. There are many domain providers such as IONOS, NameCheap and GoDaddy. I recommend IONOS because their package includes free Domain Privacy Protection*.
When you’re running a business it’s important to maintain a professional image as well as keeping your customers’ trust and appearing credible online. Routing your email through your business’s domain name shows that your business is well-established and genuine, and is likely to make customers feel more comfortable dealing with you.
*What Is Domain Privacy Protection?
When you register a domain name, your personal details are saved in a publicly available database called WHOIS. Domain privacy protection is basically an ‘add on’ service you buy to protect your personal data and keep it hidden from the rest of the world.
Color palette and font pairing
The color palette that you choose needs to make sense for the type of brand you have (e.g., corporate, modern, clean, minimalist, etc.). When you make changes to the colour palette on your site, the Site Styling will be applied site wide.
Tools & resources to come up with color palettes:
Coolors.co (pictured in the screenshot)
Pinterest – search color palettes
Font pairings: fonts have personality and help construct & signify your brand.
Font pairing generator: fontpair.co (pictured in the screenshot below)
Decide on the content
You can write the content for your website but hire a Copywriter to check it over so that you are confident that the grammar and spelling are all correct – it’s very easy to miss something when it’s your own site.
You can choose to display your fee schedule or keep it on a hidden page on your website. Personally, I wouldn’t buy anything if I didn’t know how much it costs, but it’s up to you.
Get testimonials
These are essential. If you don’t have any then get some by doing a few hours of free work or skill swap with another business owner to get some. You can have an entire page of testimonials or decide to add them to a Rotating Quote Widget instead as it looked nicer and freed up a tab that could be used for something else. It also means that you can break long testimonials into snippets which makes it look like you have a lot more.
Keep Your Domain and Host Plan Separate
If you’re new to understanding about domains, you may take a standard route of using your web hosting service as your domain provider. However, there may be some pitfalls by keeping everything under one roof.
The main one is you could lose your domain name if you ever decide to switch to another host. That’s because your domain name has the potential to be locked with your current web hosting service due to what’s called registrar-locking. This can happen if it’s less than 60 days between when you start using the service and decide to go elsewhere. If your domain name is owned independently, you can point it to whatever new web host you choose even if it’s within these 60 days.
Select a Host and Purchase a Hosting Plan
It’s not always advisable to get your hosting from the same company as your domain name because it’s easier if you later decide to move your site and it’s also more secure. Hosting costs start at around 25€ per year and I personally recommend HostKoala. They offer excellent support and all their packages include an SSL certificate*.
*What is an SSL Certificate and why do I need one?
SSL Certificates are small data files that digitally bind a cryptographic key to an organization’s details. When installed on a web server, it activates the padlock and the https protocol and allows secure connections from a web server to a browser. Typically, SSL is used to secure credit card transactions, data transfer, and logins, and more recently is becoming the norm when securing browsing of social media sites.
Add Social Media
If you use social media well or offer it as a service, then your own social media needs to look awesome and you should definitely have Follow icons on your site. Monarch plugin offers this option and is part of Divi by Elegant Themes. I personally don’t like Twitter Feeds on website home pages. They look messy, they confuse Google and someone might get the wrong idea of you just by seeing certain tweets that you’ve posted. Also, don’t link to social media accounts that you haven’t updated for ages as you’ll look bad.
Make sure it’s search engine optimized (SEO)
There’s no point in having a website if Google doesn’t know it exists and it doesn’t come up when someone searches for your business either in your area or niche. I use a free plugin by Yoast SEO that lets you optimize each page and post by writing your own meta descriptions.
Think about adding a Blog
You don’t need a blog on your website but it does drive traffic and Google loves them. You can write how-to articles that demonstrate your expertise and include case studies so potential new clients can see what you do for people similar to them. If you use social media then post a link to your blog or website each day along with other content that your target market will find useful.
Use high quality images
High quality images convey professional websites. Always look for well lit photos and aim for cohesive image styles across your site. (think branding)
A few options for including images: there’s custom photography (e.g., hire it out to a photographer/videographer) but you can also use stock images (paid or free). Both are great choices!
One of my personal favourites is Unsplash.
Assess your stats
Remember to add Google Analytics to your site so you can see how people are finding you and what your most popular pages are. Connect your analytics to your Search Console too. There are many plugins out there and just so you know, my least favorite is MonsterInsights.
Don’t let it stagnate
Regularly make sure your site is up to date with your current services, rates, testimonials etc. Check yours every three months or so.
Get traffic
There are many different ways to get traffic to your website when Google doesn’t yet know you exist.
To your work-life balance and success!
Celine
Meet the Founder of LOVE Yourself Project
Celine
Founder of LOVE Yourself Project
I created this platform as a way to share transformative ideas that inspire change through cross-cultural learning, purposeful gatherings, and shared products and services.
Enjoy!
