Online, people's perceptions of your site help them form opinions about your trustworthiness as well. Simply put, your site should be designed to inspire trust in your visitors. If you're serious about doing business online, your visitors should be able to tell that the minute they load your home page. It's beyond the scope of this article to go into detail on how to convey a professional image. What I'll try to do here is give you a short list of DOs and DON'Ts that I believe will help enhance your online credibility.
Graphics Use professional looking graphics.
If you can't design them, hire someone else to do it. The graphic you use for an image map doesn't have to be a clickable Matisse, but it shouldn't look like an animal lacking an opposable thumb went to town on your image editing software either. I'm confident that you're capable of designing your own graphic elements. In my opinion, patterned backgrounds are better left on personal pages. Black text on a white background provides easy readability and a more professional image.