Your website is like the storefront of your online business. It must portray a professional image. Otherwise, it's going to be hard for others to trust you enough to do business with you. The assumption is that if you can't even setup a simple website, you are unlikely to be able to provide high quality services. Whether that is true or not is not important. It's the perception that matters. Here are three of the most important web design elements that you may find useful.

Element 1: Color and tone of the website

This is perhaps the most important element among the three elements. When a visitor first visits your website, the first impression starts to form. Again, the accuracy of the impression isn't important. If you send all the wrong signals, the visitor will think of you as an unreliable service provider.

What you can do is to make sure that you use the right colors to create the right tone. There is no fixed tone for a website. The right tone depends on your target visitors. If they are a mature group, don't use colors that are too fanciful or gaudy. Instead, try using more mature colors like brown, blue or grey.

Don't assume anything. For example, you may feel that grey is boring. But the website is not there for your own satisfaction. It's there for your visitors. So if your visitors feel comfortable with grey, then make sure you use the color!

Element 2: Use of graphics

Graphics can turn the most boring site into a professional site, or a professional site into an amateurish site. Be extra careful when choosing graphics. If you have the time, make sure you sit down together with your web designer to choose the right graphics. Your designer can design and write code. But they may not understand your business as well as you do.

For instance, you may be setting up a website to target Asian customers. But your designer chooses graphics with Eurasian models in them. This may not be appropriate. If you are there from the very beginning, you can prevent unnecessary rounds of changes. Changes inevitably lead to delays, which is never good.

Element 3: Quality of content

Finally, after all that you have done, always make sure that you post high quality content on your website. Others should see your site as an authority site. They are more likely to buy from someone who knows what they are talking about. In other words, if they see you as an expert, it's going to be easier to sell something to them.

Every product is a solution to some problem. As an expert, you are in a better position to recommend products. But first, you must establish yourself as an expert in your field. How do you do that? You start by posting valuable content.

In this case, quality is more important than quantity. If you can't delivery quality content, forget about quantity. More doesn't really help.

Put the three elements together and you have got a professional website.