Tips for Making Your Business WordPress Site Look More Professional

WordPress has an amazing ability to allow complete customization of your website; though, when you first install WordPress and select a theme, it can be hard to know how to transform your new website into an accurate representation of your business. Without making any changes, your site will look like every other website with the same theme. By making a few tweaks to the layout and design of your site, you can help your WordPress site stand out from the pack. Here are some great tips and simple steps you can take to create a more professional appearing WordPress site for your business.

Create a Unique 404 Error Page
By default, when a user attempts to visit a page on your site that no longer exists, or they type in the URL incorrectly, they will be taken to a generic 404 error page. There are several WordPress plugins that let you edit the look and content of the 404 page. You can add custom photos, information, links, or even a search bar.

Change the Default Footer Information
Depending on the WordPress theme you install, your footer will contain a line of generic text. This will normally include a link to the theme, unless you have a premium theme, a copyright date, and possibly the title of your WordPress site. Most themes will allow you to change this information. Instead of leaving it the way it is, make sure that the name of your business is includes, as well as any relevant contact information, such as an email address, phone number, or physical address.  Bonus tip dont forget to choose best managed hosting for your site to make it more secure.

Add a Custom Favicon
Look at the tabs of the open webpages in your browser. Those small icons that you see that are also used when making bookmarks are called favicons. The majority of WordPress themes allow you to add a custom favicon. Take an image, such as the profile image used for your business, and shrink it down to 16×16 pixels. Save this new image and upload it to the appropriate spot, either using your theme settings or by placing it in your WordPress directory.

Edit the Permalink Settings
By default, WordPress will automatically name your webpage and posts using an incomprehensible string of numbers. This results in URLs that are not readable by humans. Go to the Permalink Settings in your WordPress dashboard and change this default setting to either “Month and name” or “Post name”. This creates a URL that includes the title of your page or post. Not only is this easier for humans to read, it can help with your search engine optimization.

Those are just a few ideas that you should consider to make your WordPress site more professional; though, there are hundreds of additional steps you can take. For example, whenever possible avoid using a generic header, ensure the color scheme you use matches the colors in your logo and promotional material, and avoid using a large variety of different fonts.

Take these suggestions into consideration and do not be afraid to experiment with changes as you can always preview your changes or revert back to previous settings. Also, look at your competition and other business sites and think about what you like or don’t like about their websites. Stick with it and continue customizing your WordPress site until you are proud to consider it an extension of your business.