Trust. It’s what makes the world go ‘round. This is true in many instances for sure. And you definitely need to do everything you can to build trust with the visitors to your website.
After all, without a certain level of trust earned, do you really think they’re going to make a purchase or take the next action? Not likely.
First, let’s take a look at some trust turn-offs.
- Broken website. If a visitor can’t even depend on you to maintain a functional website, how will they be able to trust that you’ll deliver on your promises to them?
- A website full of grammatical errors. You don’t have to be perfect, but you do have to proof read. A small typo isn’t going to discourage most potential customers, but a website full of blatant mistakes is going to cause visitors to stop and ask themselves, "Can I really trust the competence of these people?"
- Unnecessary security warnings. Yikes, stay away from this problem! Here’s the scenario — you’re visiting a website and you click on a link. Next thing you know, a security warning pops up and tells you that you might be at risk if you continue. What do you do next? There are lots of web apps that can cause these kind of security glitches — most of them completely harmless. But by allowing such warnings to appear on your site, you’re practically screaming at your customers to "GO AWAY!"
Most importantly, you’ve got to actually build trust, not just prevent yourself from losing it. Here are a few good ways to build trust on your site.
- Offer top-notch security. For example, all order forms must use industry standard SSL encryption. Anything less is not enough when it comes to asking visitors to submit any kind of private information.
- Establish reputable partnerships. This is easy — it’s about clearly showing visitors proof that you’re a member of the Chamber of Commerce, Better Business Bureau, and so on. If you’re not, you should be, and you need to (subtly) make sure your visitors know that you are.
- Display the badges. So you are a member of the above organizations. Display an approved-logo for each of them in the footer of your site. Same goes when you accept, let’s say PayPal, as a form of payment — display the badge whenever it’s permitted.
- Post testimonials. This tactic uses age old common sense. Potential customers always like to know that your product or service has met the satisfaction of other customers. Why not post a few good quality recommendations or testimonials? Don’t have any? Just ask your best existing customers — they’ll probably be happy to share!
- Show good reviews. If what you’re trying to sell has been reviewed — whether it’s by another website, or perhaps in a local newspaper, then by all means show that to your visitors. Let them link through and read the entire review. What if the review is not so good? Well then maybe it’s time to make improvements to the product…
The bottom line is that you’ve got to earn the trust of your visitors if you ever want to develop a quality customer relationship with them. It’s not very difficult to do, so why take any chances?
Until Next Time.
George Chaney
President/CEO
SEO King, Inc.
