- Post Your Full Address.
Don’t hide your address — even if it’s just a PO Box. This is something that many discerning visitors will look for when deciding if they can trust your website or not. Many choose to display this on the site’s contact page — and this is highly recommended — but you might even consider posting in the footer of every page. - Consider Offering A Map To Your Business Location.
Visualizations help inspire confidence. If a visitor clicks through to your contact page and not only sees your business address listed, but also sees a clear map pinpointing your exact location (and often even showing a picture of your business location), they’re going to have just a little bit more confidence in knowing that you’re a real physical entity. It does help. - Clearly Share Your Phone Number.
Make sure your visitors have a way to contact you by phone. 800 numbers are nice, but probably not vital if you’re not directly involved in e-commerce. Having some form of phone information prominently listed on your site is vital to building consumer trust no matter what. - Tell Your Story.
Your About Us page is much more than just saying, "We sell widgets and have been in business since 1992." Tell your whole story in detail — providing this kind of background is exactly what visitors want to see when they’re trying to learn more about why they should trust you. This is also a good place to share links and clips from newspaper articles about your business, etc. - Don’t Hide Your Whois.
Whois… what’s that? Well, it’s the contact information that you provided when your website domain was registered. By default, this information is publically available when someone does a "Whois" search for your site. However, many site owners opt to make this information private. It’s up to you, but know that savvy web users often check this information out to verify the actual authenticity of a site. - Use An Auto-Responder With Your Contact Form.
Make sure your visitors know you’ve received their message. If you provide an online contact form on your site instead of plainly listing your email address (which is a must if you want to reduce spam), don’t leave potential customers who submit the form hanging. I’ve seen too many contact forms that don’t offer any confirmation on whether the message was sent after it’s submitted by a visitor — it just directs them back to another page or refreshes to a blank form. This is very frustrating to visitors and not a very good way to build trust at all. Offer on-page confirmation and also use an auto-responder to send them an email immediately letting them know the message has been received and you’ll respond promptly. - List Your Reputable Affiliations Boldly.
You certainly don’t need to brag here or anything, but you’ve got to use your memberships and affiliations wisely on your website. If your business has had 10 years good standing with the Better Business Bureau (BBB), then by all means, show that. Same goes if you’re a member of your local area Chamber of Commerce, or any other professional or industry group for that matter. Use provided logos, perhaps in the footer or sidebar section of your site, to let your visitors know that you are trustworthy.
Until Next Time.
George Chaney
President/CEO
SEO King, Inc.
