30 Simple Ways to Build Trust in Your Website Visitors
30 Simple Ways to Build Trust in Your Website Visitors
Let me start this article by asking a simple question to you. If you give contract to build your home, to whom you will give? Someone new or someone who is trusted by your close friend or relative? Of course the answer is – someone trustworthy person/company –by you directly or by someone in whom you trust (your friends/relatives). As you know that “Trust” is really important in life and that’s what exactly I want to mention here to bring success in your website.
It is absolutely necessary that your website must create the environment of trust otherwise, most of your efforts will be wasted. Have you ever thought – how to create the environment of trust for a website? Don’t be panic, its very easy to build trust for your online visitors.
If you want to know how your site ranks (in terms of building trust online), then visit: http://www.infotrex.com/siterank and know by yourself, where your site is ranking.
As you already know that – you don’t get a second chance to make a first impression. Building trust for your online visitors cannot be achieved by just a single action. Trust is achieved by many little actions you do throughout your website and when its taken together, give users a sense of stability, honesty and legitimacy for your business and services you provide.
If you want to know how your site ranks (in terms of building trust online), then visit: http://www.infotrex.com/siterank and know by yourself, where your site is ranking.
Another good or bad news is that only few website owners focus on building trust in the minds of their visitors. So, if you do it well, it can become a real and sustainable competitive advantage for your business and you can keep your competitors away.
Here are 40 simple actions you can take to get started.
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 online 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.
If you want to know how your site ranks (in terms of building trust online), then visit: http://www.infotrex.com/siterank and know by yourself, where your site is ranking.
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 on building your long-term reputation, not on 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. On the ‘Contact Us’ page, provide an email form, telephone number, fax and address of the company. In Europe, 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.
If you want to know how your site ranks (in terms of building trust online), then visit: http://www.infotrex.com/siterank and know by yourself, where your site is ranking.
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’t use 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 on every page. Make the link more prominent on 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 on your site. If you have a merchant services account with a major bank like Citibank or HSBC, put its logo on your site.
29. Use Google search on 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 on your site instills trust.
30 If there are well-known industry associations for your subject, join up and put their logos on your site.
