In a world where anyone can create their own website using platforms such as Wix or WordPress, it is sometimes difficult to determine how much you can trust a website.
If you are a business trying to market your services and products online, it can be difficult to make your site stand out as an authority source.
There are many characteristics of a trusted website that you can utilize on your site in order to increase your trust and authority online.
What should my website implement?
There are a few elements of a website that make it stand out among the rest, not only as professional, but as trustworthy.
Updated, clean website design
Consider all of the times you have clicked on a website that impressed you. What left a lasting impression? I can almost guarantee that web design is one element that you remember.
Color scheme, layout, and overall design are all parts of a website that you might remember. How did the colors make you feel? Did you feel bombarded with information or was the text broken up in a way that was easy to read? Did the website include images and videos?
You may not immediately think of design as a characteristic that makes a website trustworthy, but think of a poorly designed website that you have seen.
If you saw nearly no colors on the site, with outdated fonts and no interactive features, would you be likely to trust the site’s authority? Probably not.
Your design should be neat and streamlined and avoid cluttered pages. Though images and buttons are crucial to a good web design, too much of anything can be negative.
Your presence
Are you more likely to trust a storefront with no manager in site, or one that has a friendly, interactive manager? Presumably the latter.
Your website is no different than a physical storefront, so you should always be sure to interact with your customers via your website.
Potential customers are more likely to trust you and your products or services if you answer their comments, messages, or emails quickly and efficiently, with a caring tone, just as you would in person.
If your virtual storefront appears to have no owner, visitors probably won’t trust it as much as a site where they can interact with the manager.
Up-to-date information
If there is anything that is untrustworthy, it is a website that is out of date.
This is an almost immediate red flag to site visitors if they can tell that your site is out of date. This leaves them wondering if you are still in service, if there is something wrong with production, if your services will be prompt, etc.
Visitors want to trust the information on a site, and trust will likely be diminished if you showcase old information.
Correct grammar
You can consider your site automatically untrustworthy to visitors if you have grammar and spelling mistakes in your copy.
Not only does this look sloppy to site visitors, but it gives the impression that you don’t care enough about your company or product to fix mistakes that might occur.
What makes my site trustworthy?
There are a handful of elements that make your website trustworthy to visitors, and they are all quite easy to implement on your own site.
Unbiased, accurate information
One of the most helpful practices to making your website trustworthy is to ensure that your information is unbiased.
Visitors will trust you and your services if you provide information that is correct, first and foremost. If you use any statistics or facts, they obviously must be accurate for your site to be trusted. Be sure that you don’t slant information just to make your services look better.
It is also important to be humble and unbiased. If your homepage begins with bashing another company, chances are visitors will be turned off by your need to bash another company in order to presumably get ahead. It is acceptable, however, to provide information about why your company is the best at what it does.
Telling your visitors that you’re trustworthy
Though this might sound too good to be true, if you can present a security badge on your site that says you are trustworthy, you have a golden ticket.
In order to prove that you’re trusted, you’ll need an SSL certificate to show that your site is secure enough to accept personal information from visitors.
This is a green light to visitors because they know you have been recognized as being secure through a third-party.
Including testimonials
Confirmation from other people that your product is awesome is one of the best ways to gain trust. If customers can see that people just like them are satisfied with your product or service, it will increase their trust.
Think of the last time you bought a product. Did you ask a friend if they had ever used it before buying it? Hearing from other customers that a product is successful is one of the most popular ways that we decide whether to purchase. By providing testimonials, you are essentially giving your customers with the ticket they need to prove your product is exactly what you advertise it to be.
Making your contact information visible
Providing your contact information on every page is not only a great call-to-action, but it also makes visitors feel secure. By knowing that they can reach out to you at any time with questions or concerns, they will feel at ease about using your product.
Utilizing a clean URL
Google has proven that the shorter the URL, the better. Often times, a link that has numbers and letters scattered throughout the URL will appear as spam, whereas, if you utilize a short and concise URL that tells users exactly where they’re going, they will be much more likely to trust your website.
Showcase any awards you have received
If your company has recently earned any awards for your services, display them! By showing that you have received an honor for your services, potential customers will see that your work has been recognized by professionals—a huge plus!
Do you consider your site trustworthy?
If any of these elements are missing from your website, you may appear to be less than trustworthy to potential customers. In the long-run, this could cost you many potential leads that are crucial to helping your company grow.
If you think your website trustworthiness could use some help, contact WebpageFX today and learn what we can do for your business!