How to Make Your Website Look More Trustworthy
You want to create a website that looks as professional as possible -- being viewed a a professional makes you more trustworthy to visitors. The level of professionalism required depends on your intended audience and business: a food blogger can create a website that's a bit more light-heartedness than on a CPA's business page. Generally, you want to make sure that your website is simple, well-designed, factual and on topic.
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Instructions
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Keep the design consistent and simple; visitors are likely to leave a website that's hard to navigate or frequently changing. Tempting as it may be to give each page a unique design, having a cohesive and consistent layout will do wonders in boosting your perceived professionalism.
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Check all content for spelling and grammatical errors. Ensure that your information is factual, well-written and to the point. While the rules of website writing vary depending on what kind of website you run, content should generally be short and in smaller paragraphs to keep the attention of readers on the Internet.
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Create a logo and display it prominently in your layout. An eye-catching and frequently displayed logo helps visitors associate your content with your brand. As a bonus, the logo can be used in other materials, such as banners, business cards, and brochures, to help with customer association.
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Tell visitors who you are. Make sure your About tells new visitors what they need to know about you: who you are, what your business is about and how to contact you if they have any questions. This helps visitors feel like they know who is behind the nameless, faceless website.
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Use a professional domain name that's appropriate to your business and is easy for users to remember. Choosing the right domain name depends on what's available and what works for you, but as a starting place be sure to avoid any trademarked phrases or company names. Double-check for typos before finalizing your domain name order.
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Avoid using generic or clip art images. While images had value to the content of your website, images should always be relevant, eye-catching and high resolution.
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Make sure that text is easy to read. Using a font that's too small, too intricate or crammed together in too small a space can cause visitors to give up on your message. Creating more space between lines of text can go a long way to making your text more readable.
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Pay attention to small aesthetic details. While finding the right set of aesthetics for your website will include a lot of trial and error, a number of small touches can add to your layout. These include rounding off corners, including subtle 3D elements, and creating borders on any images to make them look more finished.
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Tips & Warnings
Make sure the colors used on your website go together, and are not too bright, too dark or hard to view together.
Avoid oversaturating your website with advertising. While selling ad space in the sidebar is not uncommon, placing ads in the content of the website can make it seem cluttered and detract from the value of your content.
References
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