First of all, we start to pick a nice background for your website design. Just be careful in selecting the right color which doesn't make the site too flashy (graphics design that forces attention). You have to figure out for how long a visitor should stay on your site, 10 minutes, 20 minutes, half hour, 1 hour etc. the background color would decide if the visitor would like to stay on the website or not. The best way to judge a color for your website would be to test around and stare at the website for a while to see the comfort level from a visitor's angle. If your eyes start to water within 15 minutes of stare, then there is a problem otherwise its OK
Secondly, concentrate on the content text color. This color should be inline with the ones that are easily readable and website looks corporate and professional like the black color or dark gray etc. also, when it comes to Font, make sure there is consistency thorough out the website. All fonts should appear similar except the ones used for title texts. Font size is another factor that impacts on the overall looks and professionalism. Uneven font size gives an immature impression to the visitor. Don't make the font too small for a visitor to find it difficult to read even though they have elegant appearance. Even if you have to use different fonts, use no more than 3 font styles and plan well before selecting which one would fit to serve what purpose. Keep your website as simple and neat as possible.
The final part involves scrolling through the website design. Avoid using longer content that makes a visitor to push hard against his/her will to browse through to get to relevant data. Instead, split the content into smaller but various pages. This point is very important especially when you have planned to put longer content. Please reconsider before the visitor moves on to another website.
To get around a professional and good looking website, you have to keep the KISS principle in mind. KISS means Keep it Simple Stupid. The wording says it all, let's talk about this principle in a detailed way.