Here are simple actions you can take to build trust in your website visitors.
1. Your website design is the first impression. Make sure it is professional and relevant to the subject matter.
2. Navigation must be intuitive. If visitors can’t find what they are looking for easily, they will question your competence in providing what they want.
3. Make the website personal by giving it its own tone and voice.
People buy people.
4. Follow the HEART rule of creating oÂnline content. (Reminder: HEART stands for Honest, Exclusive, Accurate, Relevant and Timely.)
5. Use language that is appropriate to the audience. It will build empathy.
6. Regularly add new content to your site. It shows that the business is alive and kicking.
7. Review all links. Doubts will quickly form in your visitors’ minds if links don’t work or, worse still, take them to error pages.
8. Good grammar and spelling matter. Errors give the impression of sloppiness and carelessness.
9. Don’t make outrageous and unbelievable claims, like “Read this blog and you’ll be a millionaire by the end of the week.” People are used to scams, get-rich-quick schemes and rip-offs.
10. Publish REAL testimonials and third-party endorsements. Try to always use real names and link to websites where possible. Some sites show images of letters sent by happy customers.
11. Publish case studies about customers you have helped, who use your product, etc.
12. Don’t put down, curse or insult competitors. It’s unprofessional.
It is better to offer an objective comparison of competitive services or products.
13. Focus oÂn building your long-term reputation, not oÂn making quick sales.
14. Write articles for humans, not search engines.
15. Make your ‘About Us’ page personal and comprehensive. It plays an important part in making visitors feel comfortable that real people are behind the site.
16. Publish your photo or the photos of the key people involved with the site. Again, this reinforces the fact that there are real people behind the screenshots.
17. Clearly identify who is behind the site. Nothing creates more suspicion than a site that tries to hide the identity of its publishers.
18. oÂn the ‘Contact Us’ page, provide an email form, telephone number, fax and address of the company. it is a legal requirement for sites taking funds, but even sites driven by advertising will benefit from
openness.
19. Provide a telephone number that people can call and talk to a person.
20. Provide Web addresses linked to the website domain, not addresses from free webmail services such as Hotmail and Gmail.
21. Think carefully about reciprocal links. If your site is about
organic food and you have links to Party Poker, people are going to question your integrity.
22. Think carefully about the adverts you display on your site.Ensure that they are relevant to your subject and audience.
23. Write and publish your privacy policy. Be clear about what you will and will not do with any personal data you collect. State that you adhere to all data protection laws. Make it easy to read and don’tuse legal gobbledygook.
24. Write and publish a security policy. State what measures you take to ensure that all transactions are secure as well as how well you handle customers data.
25. Ensure that you have a security and privacy policy which is linked from the footer oÂn every page. Make the link more prominent oÂn all the order pages.
26. Clearly publish your guarantee. I would recommend making it a 100% money-back guarantee if possible.
27. Clearly state your refund and returns policy.
28. If you use PayPal, put the PayPal logo oÂn your site. If you have a merchant services account with a major bank like Citibank or HSBC,put its logo oÂn your site.
29. Use Google search oÂn your site for two reasons. First, it is a great search solution which will help your visitors find what they are looking for. Second, having the Google name oÂn your site instills trust.
30 If there are well-known industry associations for your subject, join up and put their logos oÂn your site.
31. Have a forum oÂn your site and respond quickly to questions. Have the attitude that you are happy to help others without receiving immediate reward. As the old saying goes, ‘Givers always gain.’
32. Allow people to comment oÂn articles. Interactivity and an exchange of views build community and a sense of involvement.
33. If people provide constructive criticism or comments in the forum,don’t delete them, but respond with your point of view.
34. Use the words ‘secure website’ whenever you try to get any information from visitors, including newsletter sign-ups, forum input and payment.
35. oÂn every page, state, “We take your privacy and security very seriously.” Link the statement to the security and privacy policy.
36. If you are selling a subscription, offer a low-cost, entry-level option. This could be a oÂne-day taster, ‘a week before billing starts’ or a monthly trial.
37. oÂnly ask for information from customers that you really need. For example, for an email newsletter sign-up, the oÂnly information you REALLY need is an email address, so that is all you should ask for.
38. If you have pricing oÂn your website, make it transparent. I recently went to buy a book which was advertised for $10. When I checked out, they added tax, post and packaging, and the final bill was $19.50. I didn’t buy it as I felt they had deliberately tried to mislead me.
39. Start a small newsletter of your company/services & circulate it among your clients/employees. Also, publish it oÂn your website regularly.
40. Allow people to “unsubscribe” from your mailing list. This may sound very obvious, but I have found that many websites still don’t follow it.
How Build Trust in your Website Visitors
