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Redesigning Your Site To Add a Personal Touch

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You know what they say, you only have one chance to make a (lasting) first impression. You also have about four (4) seconds to capture and retain the attention of your potential customer. This means you have less than four (4) seconds to create a memory that will stay with your customer long after they leave your website.

With the total number of websites on the internet fast approaching one (1) billion (oh, the competition), capturing the attention of your prospect within four seconds might seem like an impossible feat. Don’t worry though. This sequel to Redesigning Your WordPress Website (To Add a Personal Touch) shows you just how to create a captivating and personable WordPress site that will draw in a good number of your potential customers. We’ve broken the post into two major parts:

  1. WordPress Theme (or Technical) Redesign – We will show you how to add a personal touch to your site using landing pages, custom headers, logos, backgrounds, themes, freehand graphics etc.
  2. WordPress Web Content Redesign – We will show you how to add a personal touch to your web content to convert more of your readers to customers.

So, without further ado, let’s kick off with the easy stuff and pick it up from there.

WordPress Theme (or Technical) Redesign

In this section, we will show you how to use various technical elements available to WordPress to add personality and identity to your WordPress website.

Custom Headers

Your masthead (header section) plays a huge role in your website’s first impression. It is the header section on your WordPress website that introduces people to your business, so you can’t afford to get it wrong. Your masthead should be really impressive – even more impressive than the rest of your website. There is just so much you can do with your header section:

  • Don’t leave your header looking drab or empty. Use an appealing image to support your cause
  • You can choose to include a call to action (CTA) in your header section to boost conversions
  • You can use sliders and videos in the header section depending on your WordPress theme to encourage user interaction

Many premium WordPress themes will allow you to edit your header section via an easy-to-use admin panel. If your current theme doesn’t include options to edit your header, you can change themes or hire a WordPress developer to help you. Just make sure the header you settle for compliments the rest of your website.

Adding Your Logo

Your logo is a great way of showing personality and authenticity. Moreover, a logo is your identity on the internet. People relate to logos. People hardly forget logos. You need to create a logo that will stick in the minds of your web visitors for long. For instance, if you see any of the following logos out there, a light bulb will go off in your head immediately:

feature-logo-wordpress-website-redesign-wpexplorer

If you lack the skills, time or need some inspiration to create your own personal logo, checkout these WordPress Website logo design options.

Freehand Graphics

Unlike digital graphics, freehand images have character.

Through the touch of human imperfection, they gain a certain tension that is hard to recreate digitally. This special touch draws attention and allows people to pause to appreciate and process the hand-drawn content, more so than they might appreciate any old perfectly illustrated image. – Sabina Idler

I couldn’t put it better. Thank you Sabina.

Freehand drawings ooze personality and will help your web visitors to connect with your WordPress website. A majority of web developers run for stock images whenever they want to add images to any of their projects. Deviate and take the road less traveled – create freehand images for your website. Here are some people who have done a great job with freehand drawings:

Use Landing Pages

use-wordpress-landing-pages

Great design sells, and if you meticulously design your landing page(s), you can add personal touch to your website and boost conversions in no time. Many WordPress website owners direct all their traffic to a page full of blog posts. While this approach will get people reading your content, most of your traffic is dispersed indiscriminately. Now you don’t want that.

A cleverly crafted landing page will channel your customers through your sales funnel. There are many ways of drawing attention to your blog posts once you get the reader on your website, but if they (the posts) aren’t your main products, don’t send all your traffic that way.

Great landing page design goes well with a great story (something we will discuss in part two of this post). You can create a personal connection easily through storytelling especially if you tell you own personal stories. When you tell stories, you come across as a personable individual as opposed to a marketing machine regurgitating messages full of hyperbole.

If you would like to create landing pages for your WordPress site, check out this awesome article on how to build a landing page.

Dynamic Backgrounds and Parallax Scrolling

add-parallax-scrolling

Backgrounds can help you to add a great deal of personality, identity and style to your WordPress website. WordPress development has come of age, meaning you can create all manner of backgrounds without breaking a sweat. This is what I mean:

  • You can add static background images via Appearance -> Background
  • You can easily set random (or dynamic) background images using a simple plugin such as Better Backgrounds by Dave T. Coleman
  • You can add different backgrounds to different WordPress pages and posts
  • You can create parallax backgrounds easily
  • Or just purchase a WordPress theme with parallax built-in

Checkout these other resources:

Parallax scrolling is an impressive web design technique that you can use to create the illusion of 3D. Just think what you can achieve with 3D design in terms of adding personal touch. With a few tricks, you will definitely stand out from the crowd.

Before we proceed to changing themes, I will urge you to explore all the options available in your current theme to discover the much you can accomplish without having to change the theme. However, if adding backgrounds and using the tips we discussed above do not help, perhaps it’s time for a total overhaul, which involves changing your entire theme.

Changing Your WordPress Theme

Total WordPress Theme Landing Page

Changing themes is easy peasy work. Just navigate to Appearance -> Themes and choose your new theme. Simple as ABC. The challenging part, however, is choosing the right (or best) theme for your WordPress website. A theme that will compliment your brand and help you to add a personal touch to your online business. Problem numero uno is there are thousands and thousands of free and premium WordPress themes out there that choosing the best is an uphill task. Problem number two, after choosing your theme, you don’t know how to turn it into something unique. Here are some solutions:

  • Buy a premium theme as opposed to downloading a free theme. Chances are very high that a million other people are using the free theme you just eyed. It’s is different with premium themes (plus you get VIP treatment and premium support)
  • If you can’t code to save your life, hire a WordPress developer to build the design you want
  • Create your own parent theme if you have the skills and time
  • Create child themes

The theme you chose will play a big part in the success of your WordPress website. Meet the expectations of your prospects. If you have design website, it needs to feel like a design website. A tutorial website needs to feel like a tutorial site and so on and so forth. Expectations, expectations. You have to meet the expectations.

Using Child Themes

According to WordPress Child Themes: A What You Must Know Guide, “Child themes are very powerful as far as customization and extensibility go.” Now, you need a lot of customization power and great extensibility if you’re to add personal touch to your WordPress site.

WordPress child themes give you the power to mold the website of your dreams without writing a theme from scratch. This means you will have all the leeway to add your personality and identity to your WordPress site. Moreover, it saves time and money. To get a great WordPress theme and learn how to create and use WordPress child themes, check out the following resources:

Moving on…

Now that we’ve taken care of technical aspects of WordPress website redesign, how about moving on to the second part, WordPress web content redesign.

WordPress Web Content Redesign

Group of friends talking

An optimized WordPress website design will catch the attention of your potential customers in the first four(4) seconds, but it’s your web content that will make them want to stick around. You want your potential customers to stick around (for as long as possible) if you’re to sell anything. Adding a personal touch to your web content is the best way to retain your prospects on your WordPress site for longer.

Regardless of what your WordPress website is about, people like doing business with other people. So, whether yours is a B2B, B2C or a C2C business, you have to come across as a friendly person (or team) eager to help. Your web content includes every piece of content on your website from blog articles to pages and comments among others. So, how do you add a personal touch to your WordPress content? Here is the juice:

  • Try as much as possible to connect with your readers. This means you have to understand your target audience first. Then be ready to answer their questions, respond to comments – generally be helpful.
  • Establish yourself as an expert in your field. This will make your readers trust you. Create content that communicates confidence in your skills and abilities without bragging.
  • Tell personal stories only if they promote your cause. Tie in case studies to your personal stories and finish off with strong call to actions (CTAs)
  • Give your readers a reason to talk about you. Use freebies, giveaways, contests, discounts etc.
  • Do something different. Check out what your competitors are doing, and beat them at their own game by playing a bit differently.
  • Use videos. They quickly establish personal connection and can be shared in YouTube, allowing you to tap into the massive traffic source that is YouTube
  • When writing your web content, focus on the benefits first, and then the features.
  • Again, be personable:

Copy-writing isn’t formal, academic-style writing; it is selling through the written word. Learn to write in an informal, “conversational” style that readers will enjoy.- Fernando Florez

Keep your language personal, friendly, and (for most markets) informal. Sound like a person, not a pitching machine. – Sonia Simone

Conclusion

Adding personal touch to your WordPress website is all about pouring your personality and identity into your website. You can’t add a personal touch to your technical design and forget to add some personal touch to your WordPress web content; the two must go hand in hand to give you the results you desire.

With these tips, you have enough juice to add a personal touch to your WordPress website. Now go forth and build your online identity. Cheers to your success!

Article by Freddy WPExplorer.com guest author
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2 Comments

  1. Fer Florez (@FlorezFer)

    Thanks for quoting me Freddy! You’ve done a great job putting together great resources and I’m honored to be part of it. 🙂

  2. Freddy

    You’re welcome Florez. I did enjoy reading your post and your quote fit right in this post!

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