WordPress is one of the most popular choices for free professional websites. The platform also offers a variety of premium features, allowing you to cherry-pick what you want to optimize your site, no matter what type of site you’re starting.
But while WP itself makes starting and running a site simple and easy, there’s more to a site’s success than just that.
Branding is an integral part of the success of any business venture, and that is no less true for a website. Whether you’re running a company site or building your personal brand with your blog, creating branded content and visuals allows your WP site to truly reflect your brand’s personality.
There are several ways that you can add brand value to your web space. Let’s take a look at some of these, from the theme to color choice and beyond.
Choose A Compatible Theme
Branding a WordPress site often starts with choosing a theme that works best for your company.
WordPress is famous for the variety and extent of its available themes. Many are free to use, but an even wider array is available if you are willing to invest in your website.
If you’re just starting up and not quite ready to purchase a paid theme, there are still several that can be used at the beginning, with the possibility of upgrading to greater adaptability and customization later on.
Some themes lend themselves better to branding than others. Just as with other visual choices that you will have to make as you create your brand, it’s important to stay true to your brand personality and identity.
Basically, this means choosing visuals that harmonize with the personality you want your company to convey. A preppy, fun theme belongs with a preppy, fun brand. A calm, orderly theme belongs to a calm, orderly brand.
This can be reflected in everything from the color scheme to the graphics to the font choices. Many of these will come pre-loaded depending on the theme that you opt for, but can also be personalized to fit in more closely with your brand.
Incorporate Your Logo
Logos are an important part of branding, to the point that many think that “logo” and “brand” are completely synonymous.
They’re not — branding involves a lot more than just your logo — but your logo is often the first branded visual that your potential customers see. It may even be the very first contact that you have with customers at all.
So using your logo throughout your WP site is pretty common sense. It makes your site instantly recognizable, and your content will be visually linked back to your brand as well.
Logo should be used on every page but can be used in different varieties or formats. This may mean different sizes, different color combinations, or other variations. You may want to spend some time putting these options together and designing a range of possible variations on your basic logo design to give you the flexibility you need.
It is recommended, as a minimum, to consistently use your logo in the upper left-hand corner of each page. Statistically speaking, internet users tend to start at that corner when visiting a site, which means that your logo will be the first thing that they see. So there will be no doubt, right out of the gate, what brand they are dealing with.
Work Within Your Company Color Palette
The actual colors that you choose for your site may vary depending on whether it is your main company website or a supporting site, such as a blog.
It’s a popular choice to use different tones in the same color family to differentiate from the main site and a blog. But that’s up to you.
The important part here is not to stray too far away from the established color palette already in use by your brand. This means incorporating colors from your logo, from product design, and from your style manual.
Using already identified colors will help to reflect your brand throughout the site.
Know Your Tagline
Taglines aren’t always incorporated in websites and logos, but they can be effective when they are. If you don’t have a tagline for your site, it’s definitely recommended to brainstorm a few of them to see what you can come up with.
Not only are they a handy way to perpetuate your brand throughout your site, they’re also useful for branding in other areas, such as print media and product packaging.
Some taglines are static — think Nike’s “Just do it,” which is just as readily identifiable as the company name and the logo itself.
But a trend that we like is a rotating, or even a random, tagline, such as the ones used by Slate.com. They’re a little silly and nonsensical, and sometimes quite funny, but in themselves, they have become an important part of Slate’s brand on their website.
Slate’s example illustrates that branding doesn’t need to be the result of “in the box” thinking.
Taglines can be incorporated along with logos on most WP themes, often in the upper left-hand corner.
Making WordPress Work For You
There are plenty of site and blog building hosts out there. The reason that WordPress is so popular amongst all the options has a lot to do with its customizability, flexibility, and that a lot of the features are free.
The “free” part is a big plus for a lot of people. But if the main concern is building your brand through your site, the first two features, being customizable and flexible, are of chief importance.
WP works well as a foundation, a great jumping-off point. Just remember that for true branding, sticking with the default setting is not going to help much.
Take advantage of the customizable aspects of your chosen theme, and remember to incorporate your logo. With proper use and adaptation, WordPress is a fantastic tool to help you build your brand.