Tag: create a logo

How to Make a Logo for Your Website (Simple Guide for Beginners)
Do you want to make a custom logo for your website?

Maybe you can’t afford a professional designer, but you are worried that your graphic design skills aren’t up to the task. Your logo is a very important part of your brand’s identity. You want it to not only look high quality but also communicate your brand’s identity and values.

In this article, we will show you how to make a logo for your website. We will go through several different solutions so you can pick the one that suits you best.

To help you easily navigate the post, you can click the links below to jump ahead to the section you want to read:
Why You Need to Create a Logo for Your Website

Many people around the world can recognize big-name brands from their logos. When you see the iconic Golden Arches of McDonald’s anywhere in the world, you instantly recognize the brand and know what will be on the menu there.

That’s the power of branding, and a logo plays the most important role in building that reputation.

Whether you are creating a blog, making a website, or starting an online store, having a unique logo makes your brand look legitimate. It helps you build trust, recognition, and promote your business.

Often, when users want to start working on an online business idea, they start by thinking of business names and go straight to designing logos.

But before you do that, you need to make sure that your brand name idea is not already registered by someone else. See our guide on how to check domain name availability.

Once you have ensured that your business name idea is available, make sure to go ahead and register your domain so that no one else takes it (trust us, this happens more often than you think).

After you have registered your domain name, you are ready to start designing your logo. We have some excellent free logo-maker tools for beginners.

Tips for Making a Custom Logo for Your Website

Creating a custom logo for your website requires some understanding of design. However, as a beginner, you can follow these best practices to make sure that your logo looks polished and professional:
- Keep your logo design simple and clean. This makes sure that your logo will look good even at a small size. Think how tiny the profile images are in your Facebook or Twitter feed.
- Use a transparent background for your logo. That way, you can put it anywhere, not just on a white area of your website.
- Get the highest quality file you can for your logo. You want it to look great in a large size or in print, too. You can copy it and make smaller versions for social media, blog posts, and website pages.
- Use your brand and website colors in your logo to help it harmonize with the rest of your website.
There are different types of logo designs commonly used by businesses. When making your own logo, you may want to experiment with some of these.

Wordmark Logo

A wordmark logo is a distinctive text-only logo. Your unique brand name set with specific fonts and colors can make an excellent logotype.

If you are making a custom logo for your WordPress website by yourself, this is a great option as it’s simple and straightforward.

Pictorial Mark Logo

A pictorial mark is usually a brand image using an illustration or icon to represent an organization.

Famous examples of this kind of logo include Apple, Nike, Audi, and more.

Combination of Both

These types of logos are the most common ones you will see around. They combine words or letters presented in an iconic layout.

Famous examples of such logos include Dell, Pizza Hut, Doritos, and more.

Choosing the Right Style for Your Logo

If you are making your own logo, then you will need to be realistic about your design skills first. Using a wordmark might seem very simple, but it needs to be unique so that you can easily register your logo as a trademark if needed.

You can also draw an icon to be used as your logo. However, you will need strong design skills to come up with a unique idea for your brand image.

For our own brands, we use a combination of both wordmarks and icons. For example, our sister company OptinMonster’s logo has a mascot placed on a wordmark.

Let’s take a look at a few different ways to create professional-looking logos for your websites (without hiring a designer).

1. Make a Logo Using Tailor Brands (Best for Customization)

Tailor Brands’ Logo Maker is easy and straightforward to use. You also get access to a lot of customization options when creating a custom logo for your website.

It’s one of the best logo makers and is free to use. However, note that you will need to pay to download your finished logo. The minimum you can pay is $9.99 for 1 month.

To begin, go to the Tailor Brands Logo Maker and type in the name of your company. Then, click the ‘Get Started’ button.

Next, Tailor Brands will launch a logo builder that asks a series of questions.

First, you will need to select what your brand is offering. For instance, is your brand selling physical goods, services, technology and software, original content, or other products?

Simply select an option and move to the next step.

After that, you will need to enter some details about your industry. You can start by selecting an industry from the dropdown menu and briefly explaining your business.

Next, Tailor Brands will ask what your biggest motivation is for starting a business.

You can select from the options and add more details.

After that, you will need to select which stage your website or brand is in right now.

For instance, it is just an idea, you are getting ready to launch, or it’s already in business?

In the next step, you can choose which service you’d like to focus on.

Go ahead and select the ‘Logo & Branding’ option.

After that, you’ll need to select what you need for your brand.

Simply select the ‘Logo’ option.

Next, you will need to choose how you discovered Tailor Brands.

You can select any option or simply click the ‘Skip’ button at the bottom.

Tailor Brands will now process the information and show you an option to create your custom logo.

Go ahead and click the ‘Create’ button.

Next, you will need to sign up for a free account.

You can use your Facebook or Google account or simply enter an email address and password to get started.

After creating an account, you can build a new logo.

First, you will need to choose the type of logo you’d like to create. Tailor Brands lets you choose an icon-based, name-based, or initial-based logo.

You can only select one option, although you can always restart the logo maker again if you want to try out other possibilities.

If you select ‘Icon Based’ here, then you will be prompted on the next screen to choose an icon type. You can pick a geometric shape or search for an icon.

For this tutorial, let’s select the ‘Search For Icon’ option.

Next, you can choose up to 5 icons for your logo. There is also an option at the top to search for different icons.

When you are done, simply click the ‘Next’ button at the bottom.

After that, you will need to select 3 styles for your logo.

You can click the ‘Next’ button after selecting the styles you love.

Once you have completed this process, you will see a short animation while your logo is being created.

Next, you will be able to see your logo.

You can click ‘Love it’ to be taken to the pricing plans, ‘Customize’ to start editing it, or you can scroll down the menu on the left-hand side for more logo options.

If you choose to customize your logo, then you can pick from different styles, fonts, layouts, and more.

As you select different options, the logo will update on the right.

There are also options to change the color palette and edit the shape of your logo.

Once you are happy with your logo, you can click the ‘Finish’ button.

A small window will now open where you can review your logo design.

Go ahead and click the ‘I’m Finished’ button.

Once your logo is ready, you will see a download option on the next screen.

You can click on the ‘Download’ button.

Next, you will see a popup asking you to upgrade to a premium plan to download the logo.

Clicking the ‘Upgrade’ button will take you to the pricing page, and you will be presented with a number of different pricing plans.

These plans give you access not just to your logo but also to graphic design and website creation tools. They could be a good option if you want access to things like stock photos.

If you just want the logo, then you can click the ‘1 Month’ tab and select the ‘Basic’ plan. You only need to make one payment for your logo to be yours to keep. You can cancel the plan straight after that.

2. Make a Custom Logo for Your Site Using Looka (Quick and Easy)

Looka is a quick and easy online graphic design tool that allows you to make a logo without any design skills. It was formerly known as Logojoy.

Like Tailor Brands, Looka’s tool is free to use, but you will need to pay to download your logo. Prices start from $20. You don’t get the same level of personalization as you get with Tailor Brands, but it’s a great alternative for creating custom logos.

To get started, simply visit the Looka website and enter your company name in the search box.

Once that’s done, click the ‘Get started’ button.

Next, you need to select your industry from the dropdown menu.

Don’t forget to click the ‘Continue’ button to move on to the next step.

You will then see a number of logos that have been automatically generated for you.

Go ahead and select a few logos you like as inspiration.

Next, you will need to choose some colors that you like. You can pick up to 3 colors and then click the ‘Continue’ button.

After that, Looka will ask you to enter a company and a slogan (optional).

Once you have entered this information, just click the ‘Continue’ button.

In the next step, you will need to select some symbol types for your logo.

For example, we chose different food-related symbols for our food blog logo.

Looka will now start to generate logos for you.

You will then see a bunch of variations that you can use for your website. Simply select a logo to further customize it.

After that, you will see the logo builder offered by Looka.

Using the drag-and-drop logo editor, you can adjust the font size, choose a transparent background, change the font family, add or change your icon, and more.

Feel free to edit the design as much as you like and share it with colleagues for a second opinion. Once you are happy, just click on the ‘Download’ button in the top right corner to purchase and download your logo.

Note that if you want a transparent version of your logo, then you will need to pay $65 for the Premium plan.

3. Create a Custom Logo Using Hatchful by Shopify (Free)

Shopify is a popular eCommerce platform. They also offer a free logo maker tool called Hatchful. It allows you to easily create beautiful logos for your website without any design skills.

Unlike Tailor Brands and Looka, you can download the logo free of cost. Plus, it offers different customization options and will guide you step by step through creating a logo.

First, you need to visit the Shopify Hatchful page and click on the ‘Get Started’ button.

Next, you need to choose your business type.

If you can’t find an exact match, then simply use the closest possible match.

After that, Hatchful will ask you to choose a visual style for your logo.

You need to select a style that matches your business website’s style, look, and industry.

Next, enter your business name and a slogan (optional).

You can skip this step if you want and move ahead.

After that, you will be asked to select where you plan to use the logo.

You can pick the ‘Online store or website’ option to continue.

Finally, the wizard will analyze your answers and show you several logo samples to choose from.

You can select any of these logos to further edit them.

This will launch a simple logo editor where you will see a live preview of your logo with editing tools in the left column.

You can edit the text, add an icon, add symbols, and change the background.

Once you are satisfied with your design, you can click the ‘Next’ button to download your logo files.

You will be asked to create a free account, and your logo files will be sent to your email address. The zip file will include not just your logo but a favicon or site icon and cover images for your social media profiles.

Bonus: Hire Someone to Make Your Website Logo

The online logo maker tools we have covered in this tutorial are made specifically for beginners. You can create a simple and elegant logo for your website using these tools, but they are still limited in design choices.

If you can afford it, the best option is to hire an expert graphic designer to make a logo for your website. There are several places where you can find freelance designers.

For example, you can use any of the popular online job marketplaces to hire a logo designer.

There are thousands of people offering graphic design services on these websites. How do you pick the right person for the job?

Sticking to these best practices can help you find the perfect candidate to make a logo for your business.
- Look for ratings, reviews, and the number of completed jobs on the designer’s profile. These are good indications of quality services provided to previous customers.
- Give a detailed brief to the designer about your specific design requirements.
- Set your own price for the logo, but keep in mind that a unique and creative design will cost more than a generic logo.
- Make sure that you get the original source files in vector file format. This will allow you to later resize or reuse your logo in other places like business cards, posters, t-shirts, and more.
We hope this article helped you learn how to make a logo for your website. You may also want to see our guide on how to add a certified logo to your business email and our expert picks of the best WordPress typography plugins to improve your website design.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to ourÂ YouTube ChannelÂ for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us onÂ TwitterÂ and Facebook.

The post How to Make a Logo for Your Website (Simple Guide for Beginners) first appeared on WPBeginner.
28.09.2023
How to Add a Verified Logo to Your Business Email (Step by Step)
Did you know you can add a verified logo to your outgoing business emails? This is similar to a social checkmark and verifies that your emails are genuine.

Spam and phishing attacks are common, and many users are concerned about being scammed. Displaying a verified logo can give your customers and readers peace of mind, resulting in them opening more of your emails.

In this article, we will show you how to add a verified logo to your business email.

Why Should You Add a Verified Logo to Your Business Email?

Email is an important part of any business, especially one you are running from a WordPress website. You want to make sure that your emails are delivered and actually read by your users and customers.

The problem is that your users will receive many emails each day from spammers and scammers. They may wonder if your emails are safe and avoid clicking on them.

You need a way to give them peace of mind. Wouldn’t it be good if there was a way to show readers and customers that your emails were actually sent by your business?

That’s where verified logos come in.

BIMI is a new email standard that stands for ‘Brand Indicators for Message Identification’. It verifies that emails are actually from the business claiming to send them. Your brand logo will be displayed next to genuine email messages to let your customers know that they are safe.

The location and appearance of your brand logo will depend on the email client being used, and some email providers still don’t display a verified logo at all. However, the BIMI standard is being supported by more and more email clients, especially on mobile devices.

However, getting a verified logo set up is complex. Like a jigsaw puzzle, there are a lot of steps that need to be completed, and it’s going to take some time.

This article will take you through the process step by step. Keep in mind that some of the steps are quite technical, and you might like to reach out to an IT or legal professional for help.

With that being said, let’s take a look at how to add a verified logo to your business email. Here are the steps we will cover:
Step 1: Creating a Professional Business Email Address

Are you still using a generic Yahoo, Gmail, or Hotmail email address for your business? Customers often don’t trust emails coming from a generic email account.

A custom domain email address looks more professional and gives credibility to your business. Make sure you get one that uses the same domain as your website.

For example, if your website’s address is miamiflorist.com, then your email address should look like john@miamiflorist.com.

If you don’t already have a business email address that uses your website’s domain, then you can set one up in five minutes using our guide on how to create a free business email address.

Or, if you prefer using the Google or Microsoft email web app, then see our guides on how to set up a professional address with Gmail and Google Workspace or Outlook (Office365).

Once you have a new email address, you may need to change the mail exchange (MX) records on your website. MX records tell internet servers where to send emails to and from your website’s domain name.

You will need to find the details of your new MX records from your email provider and then follow our guide on how to change MX records for your WordPress site.

Then finally, you may wish to use your new email address to receive notification emails from WordPress. To do that, simply follow our guide on how to change the WordPress admin email.

Step 2: Setting Up DMARC to Authenticate Genuine Emails

Now that you have a custom email address using your domain name, you can set up DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance) for your domain.

This allows email servers to tell the difference between your genuine email messages and fake emails from scammers using your address. It protects your users and customers against phishing attacks and also prevents your emails from being marked as spam.

Tip: If you are not sure whether your domain is already using DMARC, you can check using a checker like MXToolbox. This is important since you should only have one DMARC record.

BIMI requires email messages to be authenticated by DMARC before a verified business logo is displayed on your emails. This will make sure that the logo is only displayed on emails that actually come from you.

Then, all suspicious emails are either rejected or quarantined.

You set up DMARC by adding a new DNS record to your domain. The code that you will add depends on the needs of your business, and you can learn more on the DMARC website.

If you want email servers to reject all suspicious emails, the DNS record will look like this:
```
v=DMARC1; p=reject; pct=100; rua=mailto:john@miamiflorist.com
```
Or, if you want suspicious emails to be quarantined, the code will be similar to this:
```
v=DMARC1; p=quarantine; pct=100; rua=mailto:john@miamiflorist.com
```
Depending on your needs, the DNS record may contain some additional code.

Just make sure to change the return email address to your own business address. This address will be used to send you DMARC reports about scam emails that have been rejected or quarantined.

The exact method you use to add the DNS record will depend on the domain name registrar you are using. If you are using Bluehost, then you will need to log in and click on ‘Domains’.

This will list your domain names. Once you find the correct one, you should click the down arrow next to the ‘Manage’ button and select ‘DNS’ from the dropdown menu.

On the next page, you need to scroll down to the TXT section and click the ‘Add Record’ button to add a new TXT record to your DNS settings.

Now you can add the DMARC record.

In the Host Record field, you should type ‘_dmarc’. Then, you can paste the DMARC code you chose above into the TXT Value field. You can leave the TTL setting with the default value.

Once you click the ‘Save’ button, your DNS settings will be updated. However, as with any DNS change, you will need to wait up to 48 hours for the new setting to take effect.

Step 3: Creating a Brand Logo for Your Business

You can think of a logo as the profile picture for your business. It helps your customers identify and associate your business with a visual identity. You will be using the logo on your website, social media accounts, email newsletter, and business cards.

If you don’t already have a brand logo for your business, then the first step is to create one, purchase one, or hire someone to make one for you.

For BIMI, this will need to be in the Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) format. This is a vector image format that will make sure that your logo looks good in any display size.

Creating a Business Logo

You can create a logo yourself using web design software or a free logo maker.

Just make sure that the app can save your logo in the SVG format, such as Adobe Illustrator, Affinity Designer, Inkscape, or Sketch.

Your BIMI email logo should also follow these guidelines to be compatible with different email services:
- Be centered so it can be displayed in a square, square with rounded corners, or circle
- Have a solid background, not a transparent one
- Be saved as an SVG file
- Be as small as possible and under 32 KB
Hiring a Professional Graphic Designer to Create a Logo

If you are not a graphic designer, then you might find it difficult to create a logo that looks good. Instead, you can hire a professional designer to create your business logo.

To learn some of the best places to get a custom WordPress logo within your budget, see our guide on the best places to get a custom logo.

Make sure you let the designer know that you need an SVG image that complies with BIMI’s general guidelines, as listed above.

Making Your Logo BIMI Compliant

The BIMI Group now requires your SVG logo to be in a specific format called SVG P/S (SVG Tiny Portable/Secure). However, this format is very new, and there are currently no graphics tools that can save in this format.

That means you must change the logo file to make it BIMI-compliant. You can do that using code by following directions on the official BIMI website.

Alternatively, you can use an SVG conversion tool that can modify the file for you.

Step 4: Trademarking Your Brand Logo so It’s Legally Yours

The next step is to trademark your logo. This is required because BIMI uses Verified Mark Certificates (VMC) to verify brand logo ownership. A VMC is currently only available for logos that are registered trademarks.

This will make sure that no one else can use your trademark as a verified logo, which will protect your users from scammers.

Note: To check if your business already has a trademarked logo, you can search the Brand Database run by World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) to find it.

Your brand logo will need to be registered as a trademark with an intellectual property office recognized by VMC issuers. They currently include:
Filing a trademark application is a legal process that needs to be handled carefully. It may take some time, so make sure you get started as soon as possible.

We recommend hiring a lawyer to help you apply for the trademark. You can also use online legal service providers like CorpNet, which provides legal services to small businesses and individuals at a low cost.

Learn more in our guide on how to trademark and copyright your blog’s name and logo.

Step 5: Uploading Your Brand Logo to Your Website

Now you need to upload your business logo to the website with the same domain as your email address.

For example, if your email address is john@miamiflorist.com, then you need to upload it to the website at miamiflorist.com.

Uploading the Logo File to Your Media Library

Many users will find it simpler to upload the logo file to the WordPress media library.

However, because SVG images contain code, WordPress does not allow you to upload them by default. This is to protect your site in case you got the file from an unreliable source.

You will need to follow our guide on how to add SVG image files in WordPress. We cover several methods, but the easiest is using a snippet from the WPCode pre-made library.

After that, you should navigate to Media Â» Library.

You can upload your logo using drag and drop or by clicking the ‘Add New’ button at the top of the screen.

Once the image has been uploaded, you need to click it to open your logo’s attachment page.

Here, you will find a button where you can copy the logo’s URL to the clipboard. You should keep a copy of this in a safe place because you will need the URL later in this tutorial.

Uploading the Logo File Using FTP

If you are a more advanced user, then you can use FTP to upload the file to your website.

After that, you need to right-click the file and copy the logo’s URL to the clipboard. You should paste this in a safe place because you will need it later in this tutorial.

Step 6: Applying for a Verified Mark Certificate (VMC)

The next step is to apply for a VMC (Verified Mark Certificate). It verifies that your organization is the legal owner of your brand logo.

To do this, you will need to contact a BIMI-qualified certification authority. At this time, there are only two: DigiCert and Entrust Datacard.

The application process will require you to submit the SVG file of your brand logo that you created earlier.

When your VMC application is approved, the certification authority will send you an entity certificate Privacy Enhanced Mail (PEM) file.

You need to upload this file to your website using FTP.

After that, you need to copy the file’s URL to the clipboard and store it in a safe place with the logo’s URL that you copied earlier. You will need both of these URLs in the next step.

Note: Your PEM file will need to have a URL starting with ‘https’. See our beginner’s guide on how to properly move WordPress from HTTP to HTTPS for details.

Congratulations! You have now put all the pieces in place to turn on Brand Indicators for Message Identification (BIMI) for your domain. That’s what you will do next.

Step 7: Enabling a BIMI Verified Logo for Your Business Emails

To turn on BIMI, you will need to add another TXT record to your DNS settings, just like when you set up the DMARC record earlier.

The record will include the URLs to your logo and VMC certificate like this:
```
v=BIMI1; l=https://URLTOLOGO/logo.svg; a=https://URLTOCERTIFICATE/vmc.pem
```
Make sure you replace the logo and certificate URLs with the URLs you saved earlier.

Alternatively, you can generate the code you need using the official BIMI Generator Tool.

You need to navigate back to the DNS settings for your domain as you did in Step 2 of this tutorial. Then you should add a new TXT record like this:

The Host Record field needs to be ‘default_.bimi’ followed by a period and your domain name, such as default_.bimi.example.com.

In the Text Value field, you should paste the code you generated above. You can leave the TTL field with the default value.

After that, you will need to click the ‘Save’ button. It may take up to 48 hours for the new record to propagate around the internet.

Now your users will see a verified logo next to your business emails. Well done!

Step 8: Verifying That BIMI Is Set Up Correctly

After all the work you just did to create a verified logo for your business emails, it’s a good idea to make sure everything is working properly.

The best way to do that is to visit the official BIMI LookUp & Generator Tool. Simply type in your domain name to get a report that checks your compliance with BIMI standards.

The report will show you whether your DMARC record is according to BIMI specifications. It will also show the contents of your BIMI DNS record, a preview of your verified logo, and whether your VMC certificate is BIMI-compliant.

If any problems are found, then the report will give you more details on what is wrong and how you can fix it.

We hope this tutorial helped you learn how to add a verified logo to your business email. You may also want to see our guide on the right way to create an email newsletter or our expert picks for the best email marketing services for small business.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to ourÂ YouTube ChannelÂ for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us onÂ TwitterÂ and Facebook.

The post How to Add a Verified Logo to Your Business Email (Step by Step) first appeared on WPBeginner.
22.06.2023