Any new website is usually treated with suspicion for the first time, because there are millions of reputable businesses on the internet and unfortunately, a significant number of scam sites as well. Some of the most common mistakes that sabotage websites when it comes to garnering trust are substandard content, poor privacy policy, infrequently updated content, unprofessional website design, too many ads and long load times. Since any new visitor to a website will typically determine whether to stay or leave within the first 15 seconds, it’s crucial to immediately instil a sense of trust within the visitor because a website has an extremely small window of time to convince users. Hence, the trust factors that one must include to promote the reliability of a business are:
- Design: High End Design and Development of a website is the first and foremost priority to impresses a visitor. Many businesses mistakenly rely solely on social media or try to build the website themselves. However, design quality and development functionality are initial indicators of perceived trust in any site. It should be the primary focus to ensure that a website is responsive and its design and strategy have been duly considered to provide a crucial first glimpse of dependability to the users.
- Personalize: Users don’t connect with websites; they connect with the people behind those websites. That’s the reason why websites must be personalized to evoke a connection with users. It must reflect the story of the business or group through its text or by featuring pictures and videos of employees or other business clients. Including employee profiles, images of client’s interaction, industry awards and other such avenues make the business look contactable and helps remove any level of anonymity.
- Privacy Policy: It’s a smart trust building idea to ensure that the customers’ private data will remain secure while doing business. This should be done by creating a privacy policy and inserting it alongside the About Us and Contact page where they are easily visible. Privacy policies provide a brief statement saying that any private information like customer name, address, financial records, credit information, and other details won’t be shared with anybody. Often, having this peace of mind helps the actual paying customers. It’s also useful to note that Google looks to see whether sites have privacy policies as part of their manual quality evaluations, as it is considered one of the basic first steps for anyone doing business or publishing online.
- Testimonials: Testimonials are credible when attributed to a real person. Adding a name, face, or voice makes any information a legitimate source that the visitors can identify and trust. Authentic testimonials that are featured on any website can also be leveraged across multiple marketing channels, such as social media or email marketing, and make for powerful trust builders for any business. Applying testimonials has proven to result in increased conversion rates and customer satisfaction.
- External Links: External links work as a proof for the users that the business is closely attached with recognizable brands. It is important to make sure that the outbound links present on any website are to reliable sources that reflects the business affiliations. External links pointing at any website are trust builders and if blog posts lead to link directories or scam websites, credibility with any prospective customer can be easily destroyed, as well as a chance for potential conversion.
Trust is a crucial factor for any business to be successful and hence the above mentioned factors of trustworthiness are important to every website, and have remained stable for decades. Even though the specifics of how to meet these trust guidelines have evolved over time, the underlying principles still stay valid.