Your website’s credibility is critical.
You want people to believe what it says. The Pew Research Center reported that over 80% of U.S. adults go online at least daily. It’s essential to build trust with your website’s visitors, whether they’re just browsing or buying.
Fortunately, you can add credibility elements to a website, such as marketing toolkits with powerful resources and strategies. You can adopt several features, including solid online security, to protect your company and visitors.
Let’s look at some of the most critical web design features to make your website more believable.
Improve Your Website’s Aesthetics
Research shows that eye-catching websites can gain visitors’ trust. Meanwhile, some surveys also show that most people wouldn’t buy products from a badly designed website.
Whether there’s a link between a website’s aesthetics and the company’s offerings isn’t the issue. What’s most critical is to make a good first impression.
Determine whether you should use templates to build your site or hire a professional web developer. An investment in a website developer can become worthwhile in the long term.
Your website’s aesthetics should be easy on the eyes. Sometimes, people spend too much time in front of the monitor, especially when browsing or searching for information online.
Try to achieve a visually appealing web design that supports eye health despite long hours in front of the computer. Such consideration shows you’re a company that cares for your visitors and customers.
Share Your Company’s Expertise
While some companies try to be a “Jack of all trades,” it’s better to carve out a niche.
Share your company’s expertise to build trust with people. What do you do best? What makes you unique? How much total industry experience do the founders have?
Remember that website visitors often consider such factors when picking a company to buy products and services.
Share Your Company’s Team as Real People
Just as it’s critical to show your company’s physical location is real, you should also prove that you and your workers are real. It’s an issue of transparency.
If your company has a casual environment, don’t show pictures of all employees in formal wear. People tend to like other people when they’re acting naturally.
Forget about creating a fabricated image of how you think people want to view your staff.
Provide Terms of Use and Privacy Policy
This step helps to build trust by showing your company’s transparency. For instance, it can explain what information it collects when people visit the website.
Meanwhile, the terms of use show what kind of business parameters your company has.
Your website can place the privacy policy and terms of use at the website’s footer. What’s most critical is that these documents appear on the site so people can refer to them.
Make sure to provide the privacy policy whenever your company collects information from visitors. For example, if you collect people’s email address to subscribe to your newsletter, give a copy of the privacy policy.
Polish Your Guarantee
Guarantees are an excellent way to set your company apart from the competition. It also reduces the risk that potential customers would have if they did business with you.
Some of the options include:
- Lifetime warranty
- Refund policy
- Product or service satisfaction
What if your company already has a guarantee? Revisit it to see if it needs polishing in terms of clarity, grammar, and dates. Review your company’s guarantee now and then for updating.
Provide a Physical Office
One of the red flags when visiting a website is when it doesn’t have a physical address or phone number.
A company that provides a P.O. box isn’t automatically untrustworthy. However, research more about the company’s legitimacy.
What’s the big deal? A physical address shows the company is stable. It’s a lot easier to move a post office box than a brick-and-mortar building.
People are more likely to trust a company with a physical address they can send a letter to or return a package if necessary. Meanwhile, it’s not difficult for fake companies to change their P.O. box very quickly.
Improve Load Times of Web Pages
Websites take longer to load in particular situations, like on mobile devices. Many internet users today become impatient with slow-loading web pages. Research shows that many consumers expect web pages to load within a few seconds.
If your website consistently takes several seconds to load, it can reduce visitors’ trust. Take steps to lower load times to boost customer confidence.
Update Your Website Regularly
If your company has a website, then you’re headed in the right direction. It’s also critical to review and update the site periodically. This process can involve checking for:
- Expired promos
- Past event dates
- Irrelevant content
Do you want to build credibility with website visitors? If so, then make sure the web pages provide factual and updated information. It can also help your rankings in search engine results pages (SERPs), which is another benefit to consider.
Provide Third Party-Verified Test Seals
If your company collects sensitive information like credit card details, it’s critical to provide a trust seal. This seal of approval verifies that your company is legitimate and not a fly-by-night one.
Online security has become a significant issue in recent years. So it’s critical to show your company is taking steps to minimize the risk of hack attacks. Visitors and customers need to believe they can trust you with personal data.
In the information age, consumers are understandably much more skeptical about online information. Your company should provide your target audience with fresh, clear, and valuable information. Adding the elements mentioned above may ultimately help boost sales by building trust.
Reference
1. About three-in-ten U.S. adults say they are ‘almost constantly’ online
https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021/03/26/about-three-in-ten-u-s-adults-say-they-are-almost-constantly-online/
2. Stanford Guidelines for Web Credibility.
http://credibility.stanford.edu/guidelines/index.html
Author’s Bio
As an experienced business consultant, Arnold Rogers has advised businesses across many industries in areas of lead generation, customer experience, service development and small business cash flow and financial management.
He has experience in handling diverse industries, from fast-moving consumer goods to business to business hardware retailers.
