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Give a Professional Polish to Your Website
If you want to be taken seriously, particularly in the online arena,
your website must have a professional look and feel. A professional-looking
website will lend you credibility and legitimacy, and it will make your
visitor feel more confident in you, your products and your services.
Whether or not you have a designer or you go the DIY route, you want
to make sure that you add the following to make your website reflect
the professionalism of your business.
1. Have a dedicated domain for your website and your email.
First and foremost, have a domain name that reflects the name of your
business. For example, my business is ClientAbundance.com and my domain
name is www.clientabundance.com. If you can't register your company's
name, seriously consider changing it or making it work so that you can
register it. For example, if your company is "Your Life, Only Better" but
www.yourlifeonlybetter.com is taken, you will avoid any conflicts down
the road if you rework your business name now.
You can check availability and register domains at www.powerpipe.com
or www.godaddy.com for as little as $6.95 per year.
With registering a domain comes a dedicated email address that you can
set up to work with your current email software, such as Outlook. For
example, one of my email addresses is alicia@clientabundance.com. It
looks much more professional that alicia343@yahoo.com. Nothing looks
less professional than a Yahoo or Hotmail email address as your business
email.
2. Have a really good logo.
This is important because it helps increase your credibility and makes
you seem more real in the online world. It will also make you feel more
legitimate to have a tangible object attached to your business.
www.LogoYes.com is a do-it-yourself site and it's cheap. If you can spend
a little more, hire a designer to create it for you. A good source is
www.mylogo.com, where you can get a custom designed logo for $299. If
you're new in business, don't spend a ton of money here, though, as it's
likely you'll go through some transitions before settling on a design
and message that feels uniquely you.
3. Make your contact info prominent, and include a physical location.
People want to know that they can contact you if they need to, and
they don't want to have to search for this information, so don't hide
it. Include your email, phone number and physical location at the bottom
of every page, and include an email address link at the top of every
page as well (incorporating it into your logo can work nicely).
By law, any email marketing you do (ezines or other broadcasts) must
have a physical address displayed within it. Don't use your home address
or a PO Box if you can help it. Rent a mailbox from your local UPS store
for about $12 a month and use "Suite" instead of PO Box.
4. KISS - Keep It Simply Sophisticated.
By this I mean, keep your site clean and elegant. No flashing things, no annoying animated graphics, please. Give people the information they came for with simple navigation and easy to read text.
5. Have an opt-in form for your freebie offering.
Whether you have this on your site or not really doesn't make you look
more or less professional, BUT - and this is a big BUT - you must capture
people when they visit your site if you want to be able to SHOW them
(through your ezine or other freebie offering) that you are a professional
and that you do know what you're doing. Nothing will make your visitors
come to know you faster and learn to like and trust you than your continuing
to "speak" to them.
Create a simple opt-in script and add it 'above the fold' on your website.
Most hosting companies have these scripts available to you, or you can
search online for a free script to enter into the code on your website.
Are there sites that you visit often, just to see what that person or
company is up to? Well, the same goes for your website. If your visitors
like your site, they will come back over and over again to see what YOU
are up to. And isn't that what you want?
Alicia M Forest, MBA, Multiple Streams Queen & Coach™, & Founder of http://www.ClientAbundance.com , teaches coaches, consultants, online entrepreneurs and solo professionals to attract more clients, create profit-making products and services, make more sales, and ultimately live the life they desire and deserve. For FREE tips on how to create abundance in your business, visit http://www.ClientAbundance.com