There are good websites, there are great websites, and there are cheap websites. And nothing says “please try out our competitors” like the latter. Your website is often your first introduction to your potential customers, and just like a brick-and-mortar business, you want to make sure your visitors don’t walk inside and instantly start spotting problems.
Think of it this way… if you walked into a restaurant and saw peeling wallpaper, bugs, and specials that haven’t been updated in the past 15 years, you’d probably back slowly out the door and run. The same thing happens with websites, it’s just harder to spot the sprinters.
But building something classy, up-to-date, and professional doesn’t have to be a huge investment. Yes, a budget definitely helps get the job done right, but there are a handful of details you can ace without breaking the bank.
(Fiverr is also a great place to get custom graphics for your site, such as buttons, banners, and headers).
A Good Logo Is Everything
A solid logo can send just the right message about your brand, or it can send the message that no one really cared about the logo. If you’re hoping to build a brand around your site, a strong logo is a must. Logo design can be expensive, but fortunately, sites like Fiverr hook you up with an army of artists all willing to work for just a few bucks a pop.
Make sure to get a logo that matches the tone of your site, isn’t too complex, and isn’t a carbon copy of every other small business in your zip code.
Include Photos Where Possible
People like seeing themselves, or second-best representations of themselves. Help them picture themselves using your product, or the emotional connection they’ll feel using your product, by inserting stock photos where possible.
A stock photo subscription can get pricey, so the workaround here is to use sites like Unsplash or Pixabay, which provide royalty-free stock photos free of charge.
(And please, please, please make your photos consistent widths. For all our sakes.)
Do Some Spring Cleaning
Clutter is one of the easiest ways to differentiate between a good website and a bad one. Good websites are clean, with organized and deliberate sidebars, plenty of white space, and every element serves a specific purpose. Cheap or cheap-looking websites fill the page with every widget, ad, tag library, social media connection, and link list they can find. Be deliberate and clean with your layout and you’ll see an instant difference.
Be Consistent With Your Brand
Page to page, blog post to blog post, you want your brand and brand-look to be consistent across every page. Don’t focus on what looks good per page, focus on what looks good for the site as a whole. Wherever your users are in your site, they should always know that it’s your site.
Show Me the Font
Font, singular, or as a rule, no more than two or three. That’s the golden rule for making your website look classy. There are thousands upon thousands of “creative” fonts out there and some of them are very tempting to use. Writing out your headers so they look like the title of Back to the Future? That’s tough to pass up!
But pass It Up.
You’re running a business, so choose fonts that say “business”, and be consistent across all your pages, headers, and graphics. The moment you start dropping random fonts is a step closer to looking like a free GeoCities website from the 90’s. One too many fonts and all you’ll need is the dancing baby GIF.
Go classy with the fonts. Trust me.
Questions? Ready to Get Started?
If you have questions or would like to get started, please give us a call at 312-834-7787 or visit our website to request a free quote and consultation.