How to Build a Professional-looking WordPress Site
WordPress is an open-source content management platform that powers about 30% of all websites. It is not difficult to set up a professional-looking website on the platform, once you have a brand name and vision in mind.
Complete beginners should first try WordPress.com, while more experienced users can explore the broader capabilities of WordPress.org.
Choose the right platform
There are hundreds of online guides comparing WordPress.org and WordPress.com. Regarding web hosting, these are two entirely different platforms.
WordPress.com provides hosting plans ranging from $50 to $5,000 a year, whereas WordPress.org is self-hosted. This means that you must find a provider to host your WP site.
Find a hosting provider
Suppose you chose the more flexible WordPress.org. After all, there are plenty of hosting providers out there whose offers are more appealing than WordPress.com’s.
SiteGround, BlueHost, GreekGeeks, and IONOS are the top four hosting solutions for WP sites at the moment. It’s a bit of a surprise, as DreamHost used to occupy the third place, but it has now slumped to the fifth spot.
Managed or unmanaged hosting?
WordPress.com provides fully-managed website hosting plans, which will take loads of technical responsibility off your shoulders.
If you’ve chosen the .org platform, SiteGround, WP Engine, and Hostinger are the top 3 managed WP hosting plans at the moment.
The WordPress approach to website building
Just like everything else in the universe of WordPress, the WP website builder is intuitive and very easy to use.
All elements come in the form of pre-designed building blocks. You can combine them in any way you want to achieve the desired professional look of your website.
An unlimited variety of themes
The theme that you have chosen determines the overall look of your website. You can start with a free theme that partially corresponds to your brand image and redevelop or replace it with a paid one later.
Decide what features your website will have
No WordPress tutorial can be completed without shedding light on a business website’s most popular features and functionalities. Here are some of them:
- Branding
- Call-to-action buttons
- Sign-up forms
- Campaigns and engage boards
Find your brand’s image
Every website detail should serve a single purpose: promote your business brand. However, you have to first find your unique brand identity.
If you already have a brand name and a slogan, you can proceed to work on your brand image’s design. If you seem stuck with it, you should hire branding experts to develop one for you.
Hire a web designer
Although WordPress’s website builder is super user-friendly, you may encounter unexpected difficulties when combining different looks and functionalities.
According to Sytian, a web developer in Philippines – “Hiring a web designer or developer can help you save more than just time and money. It can help you focus more on growing your business and customers. Your web guy should cover all the technical things while you push your business forward”.
Indeed, web designers aren’t cheap, but their expertise will save you many hours of frustration in front of the computer screen. In short, if you want a professional-looking WP site, hire a professional to design it.
Improve user experience
When you are happy with your site’s design and functions, please browse through all its sections and menus to test how the buttons work.
The most important thing for a website visitor is quickly finding what they’ve been looking for.
Make sure that all of the site’s essential functions and categories are neatly organized on the front page, and use pop-ups sparingly.
Increase readability
A professional-looking WordPress site must feature expertly written and 100% SEO-optimized content.
WP provides several SEO plugins, but Yoast remains the all-time favorite. When you publish something on your site, ensure that your fonts are large and clear.
Nobody is going to read through a wall of text, so use headers and sub-headers to break your posts into easy-to-digest sections.
Optimize your WP site for mobile view
Nowadays, most visits to your business website will come from mobile devices. Therefore, all of your posts and multimedia must be 100% mobile view optimized.
The mobile version of your site must be responsive, well-organized, and with adequate screen resolution.
Fortunately, plugins like JetPack and WP Mobile Menu will cover all of the above issues for you.
Compress your multimedia
You must embed enticing photographs and videos into your posts while ensuring fast page loading times. This is possible with the use of media optimization plugins like Smush and Lazy Load.
