Remember the days when to create your own website you had to play with HTML code or to contact a developer for the development from the scratch? This led to the fact that the sites become obsolete if no one engaged in updating them after a while.
Today, you can see that there are many options that you can choose from to create your own website. And whatever business you are engaged in, WordPress is a great CMS on which you can create a professional website and enjoy its constant updates.
Regardless of the scope of your business, whether you are a photographer, designer, business consultant, you will always be having competitors. And your website may be precisely become the hallmark by which customers will seek you. Let’s try to make it so with a few tips.
1. Choose an attractive theme for your WordPress website.
If you want to attract the attention of customers to your WordPress website, it must look professional and unique, compared to other. Many businesses want to have a website design that specifically meets the needs of their subject, but if the budget does not allow, choosing the “premium theme” is perfectly right in this situation.
Of course, the choice of topics depends on the services that you offer. “Portfolio” Themes are best suited for photographers and those who are related to creativity, a theme with minimal design for writers, and any kind of business.
If you are a web designer, working in marketing or technology, it is important to follow the popular design trends and updated threads in accordance with them. Using the theme that was developed two years ago, you are putting your customers into question because this may scare off most of them.
2. Optimizing your WordPress website database.
Most users leave the site in a few seconds if the page does not load for a long time. To avoid this, it is best to choose a simple theme that does not overload the WordPress website with unnecessary photos and videos.
Try installing W3 Total Cache plugin which will significantly improve the speed of download.
Test or ask for further advice on Free Site Speed test services like YSlow or Google Page Speed.
3. Do not forget about SEO.
If the WordPress website is properly optimized for search engines, the customers will find you. This is more important if you offer services only in specific regions. Suppose you are a wedding photographer in Nashik. Then you want to be sure that your site is listed on the first page of Google for the search term “wedding photographer in Nashik”.
The easiest way to optimize your WordPress website for search engines is to install All in One SEO Pack or Yoast SEO Plugin. The plugin lets you optimize the structure of the site and the correct titles and description for your website pages will soon let you find your website in the search engine.
Installing SEO plugin and adding titles and descriptions to the pages is not the only thing that you should do. You should also add the right keywords for the images and make the internal linking of pages, if possible.
Another very good thing to do is to make a sitemap and add it to the Google Webmaster Tools, which is also very helpful in promoting your site. This can be done using Google XML Sitemap plugin.
4. Your contact details should be on the mind.
You can have the best website design in the world, but if there are no contact details, it is simply useless. Make sure you put the correct link to the “Contact” in the navigation of the WordPress website and add a few more ways to connect with you.
If you put the information such as “You can contact me by mail …” and place your an email, then it can be used by the spammers, and you will receive a lot of spam messages. It is best to replace it with an ordinary contact form, which can be done using Contact form 7 plugin with the required fields.
If you have an office, write the address and place Google map on a page. For this, WP Google Maps or a similar plugin can be used.
5. Be yourself.
What is surprising is that many freelancers do not think about how to place their own photos on the WordPress website page. If you find customers over the Internet, then they do not always have the opportunity to meet with you face-to-face in real life. Therefore, it is most important to add at least in the photo, it looks like the person with whom they are going to work.
If you post your photo, it will be easier to build trust and affection, even before you will be contacted personally.
For the same reason, do not use the pronoun “we” if you are working alone. Many freelancers think that it sounds more professional, but in fact, has a very different effect.
Do not be afraid to show who you are. Your customers – The same people, and they will be more encouraged to work with you if you create an impression of the person with whom you can communicate even outside of work.
6. Write to “sell”.
The presence of the text and its content is no less important than the appearance of the site. Effective copywriting helps to involve the client in text and tell him what you have to offer and to persuade him to turn it to you.
Many freelancers and those who lead their own business are doing a very grave error – say more about themselves than about the client’s needs. Turn your capabilities, experience and achievements in the solution of their problems. Tell them how you can help their business to grow with your services.
Copywriting is an art – and it will take some time to practice and get the result. If you have the opportunity – please refer to the services of a copywriter. And when your website visitors will turn into customers, you will benefit. Otherwise, try to learn how to write texts.
7. Create and update a blog regularly
WordPress is a platform that was originally created for a blog. And if you start using this platform and often write interesting posts, you can attract more visitors to your website. In addition, the blog can contribute in promoting the site from SEO point of view.
It is a blog with which you can unleash your professionalism and show potential customers that you are well versed in what you do.
And finally,
8. Invest in your site, then it will bring you profit.
Of course, you can just stop to watch your site and update it, while you spend your most of the time for other work.
But if you devote a little time and money to make the site more attractive, it will bring more customers and profits. Simplicity and ease of WordPress, available themes and plugins can create an excellent opportunity for this.
WordPress is a user-friendly platform to work with if it is backed by the best hosting platform. If you want to migrate your website to a reliable hosting provider, check out our WordPress Hosting Plans.