Most people understand the saying “You Never Get A Second Chance To Make A First Impression”. However, it’s not applied to websites so much… and it should. Users get more and more sophisticated with time and have certain expectations of your website. You might be an expert at what you do, but are you communicating that on your site? Better yet, are you showing without telling?

That is the key. You want to show your expertise without having to tell users how great you are. This is done through a combination of engaging design, up-to-date good content, and good programming to back it up.

Let’s get into specific elements you can use to show your level of expertise in a professional and effective way. If you are working on your first site or if you are considering re-designing your site, review these elements before you get too far.

1. Design
Hire a professional designer. This is your business. Your site needs to look professional and visually appealing. Professional designers understand the concept of being industry appropriate, the way users focus on a page, and the best way to communicate your message. From the colors and fonts to use… to showing calls to action above the fold… to knowing how users interact with navigation menus… you will see the difference hiring a professional makes, and so will your users.

2. Content
Content is so telling. And I don’t mean just typos or grammatical errors. You want your site to have the same tone throughout all of its pages. And this tone needs to match both your business personality and that of your audience. To complicate things, your content also needs to make the search engines happy and it needs to look current. We recommend writing a first draft internally and then hiring a professional writer to polish it up. Make sure you hire a writer who has web experience. Writing for the web is different from writing for print.

3. Size
The size of your site in terms of number of pages also makes a difference. Even Google treats you differently when you have lots and lots of pages. Just remember that you can start small and add on. They key is to add content consistently. We recommend that your site have a content management system (CMS) so you can add content easily and quickly. At a loss for what to write about? Think about industry news, company news or history, how you are unique from the competition, or simply dig deeper on topics you have already written about.

4. Resources
Make your site a destination site where users go not only to read about you but to get pointed in the right direction. You can have links to resources that are not in direct competition. You can also have downloadable white papers or “how to’s”. The more complete and fresh your resources are, the more users will keep coming back to your site… and the more they will see your site as an authoritative one. 

5. Portfolio
If you are indeed the expert, have examples to show… and have plenty of them. Work on how you make them accessible. On our site, we show our work by client (for those who heard about us by word of mouth and know what sample they are looking for); by industry (for those who want industry specific work similar to what they are considering); and by solution (for those who want to see comparable work). Think of your audience and give them multiple ways to browser/search your portfolio.

6. Case Studies
Case studies are even better than portfolio items. These give you more credibility. Keep it simple, though. You want to show: what the challenge was, what your solution was, and what the end result was. A one-pager per case study is enough. 

7. Testimonials
Hearing how great you are from others is better than hearing it directly from you. As soon as you complete a project/service, ask for a testimonial. Make sure you let them know you reserve the right to edit. You don’t want to change the messaging, but you do want to fix typos and grammatical errors. To get a good testimonial, guide your clients. Tell them what you are trying to achieve. For example, if we want a testimonial about e-commerce, we would tell our client something like this: “We are looking for more e-commerce work. Now that we have completed phase 1 of your site, could you give us a testimonial? It would be nice if you could say, in your own words, how we helped you plan your store, what you think of our process, and how you feel now that you are getting initial sales.” 

8. Action oriented
Make your website do something! Don’t just wait for the phone call. Offer something to sign up for, something they can download, etc. Satisfy users’ need for instant gratification. They will be more likely to call you if they got to try out a few things on your site first.

 A well done site takes time, effort, and budget. You may as well invest all three on the right elements and have a professional website that reflects your expertise.