When doing business online your credibility will
play a significant role in how much business you
can get and how successful you can be. Just like
any brick and mortar store, losing credibility
with your online business can be disastrous for
business.
In general, people are even more skeptical when
it comes to doing business online. Perhaps it's
because you don't have the face-to-face contact
that shoppers are accustomed to when buying
offline. Or it might be due to a distrust of
what will happen once you punch in your credit
card information and hit the "send" button.
There are a number of reasons why people are
distrustful of stores offline and online, but
that sense is often heightened when shopping on
the web. That makes it ever more important to go
out of your way to create a sense of trust and
credibility to your online visitors.
Recently, Stanford published their
top 10 guidelines to establishing web
credibility. While the official lock of
credibility won't occur in your visitors minds
until they have successfully performed a
business transaction, there are several things
that you can do to bolster your credibility to
get your visitors to take that first step at
becoming a long-term customer.
Make it easy to verify the accuracy of the
information on your site.
You can build
web site credibility by providing
third-party support (citations, references,
source material) for information you
present, especially if you link to this
evidence. Even if people don't follow these
links, you've shown confidence in your
material.
Aside from typical marketing jargon such as "We
offer the most effective" or "We provide the
highest quality..." which are often subjective,
citing references and resources backing up any
statistics or claims you're making is extremely
important. If you can back up your marketing
jargon with a third party source that confirms
what you claim, all the better, but if you're
going to cite a statistic or quote an authority,
you'll enhance your credibility if you link to
another published account of what it is you are
referring to.
But be careful which sources you site or link
to. Many times you'll find sources that are
merely quoting other sources, who might also be
two or three tiers away from the original
source. By then, something might have gotten
lost in the translation. Do your best to go back
and find the original source of the material.
Short of finding that original source; find the
one that is most credible. Don't link to some
Joe's website that cited a source from someone
else, when you can link to a more authoritative
source, even if they are merely repeating
information themselves.
Don't forget that often times you can be your
own best source. If you are talking about how
satisfied your customers are, link to a
testimonial page on your site. If you make the
point of how well your product or service does,
link to another page that backs that up with
your own research. Whatever you do, don't make
up your testimonials or research. Most visitors
can see right through that. It's also not a good
idea to try to convince shoppers how good your
product or service is without being able to
provide actual references to back up your
claims. Using the guise of confidentiality or
anonymity is weak at best and transparent at
worst.
Again, you either have people and results that
will back up your claims or you don't.
The more of this evidence you can provide the
better and more credible you will be in the eyes
of your visitors. But don't go overboard either,
by thinking you have to link to every possible
resource that you mention. This can lead to a
convoluted site that loses its focus and ability
to sell. Make sure your references help you make
the sale, not hinder it.
Show that there's a real organization behind
your site.
Showing that
your web site is for a legitimate
organization will boost the site's
credibility. The easiest way to do this is
by listing a physical address. Other
features can also help, such as posting a
photo of your offices or listing a
membership with the chamber of commerce.
Showing that your organization is legitimate
goes right to credibility. There are several
things that you can do to establish the
legitimacy of your company.
Posting Contact Information:Make
sure your site contains as much contact
information you can provide. Phone, email,
physical address, fax, etc. Many businesses rely
on contact forms and forgo the written contact
information. This is a mistake. They more ways a
visitor can contact you the better off you'll be
in establishing that you are a legitimate
company. On the flip side of that, don't post
personal addresses, phone numbers or cell phone
numbers, as that will give the impression that
you're a mom and pop shop that might not be able
to be reached during normal business hours. Even
if you can't, you don't want to advertise that
fact.
Professional Affiliations: Letting
people know of the organizations you belong to
such as Chamber of Commerce or Better Business
Bureau can go a long way to giving your visitors
comfort about your business. If you're not a
member of either, I recommend that you become
one. The BBB in particular allows you to place a
logo and link on your site so visitors can view
your BBB profile. People trust the BBB, and
while membership has its price, the credibility
it provides your business is definitely worth
the fee.
Articles: Writing and distributing
articles about your industry on line (and
including a link to your website) is a great
confidence builder. If your visitors see that
your information has been published in online
ezines and other industry news or information
sources, they can see that your accepted
expertise extends to others in the industry, and
is not just part of an on-site smoke and mirrors
campaign.
Answering Phones and E-Mail:
Nothing destroys credibility faster than phone
messages or emails going un-returned. If you
wait even a day to respond to a phone call or
email chances are the inquiry has already been
answered by a competitor and the sale decision
already sealed. Having a live person answer the
phone does wonders as well, rather than allowing
the phone to go to voice mail. Even one-man,
part time businesses can portray a significant
amount of credibility along these lines by
hiring an answering service to take messages.
But again, every chance you get, return those
calls.
The first step to making a sale is to convey
confidence in your organization. Let people know
you are a legitimate business intent on meeting
their every need quickly, efficiently and
professionally.
Highlight the expertise in your organization
and in the content and services you provide.
Do you have
experts on your team? Are your contributors
or service providers authorities? Be sure to
give their credentials. Are you affiliated
with a respected organization? Make that
clear. Conversely, don't link to outside
sites that are not credible. Your site
becomes less credible by association.
What makes you different from your competitors?
Is it just lower prices, or do you have
something substantially unique to offer?
Experience and knowledge often translates to
additional value for your customers. If you got
it, flaunt it! Let your visitors know why they
should do business with you rather than your
competition.
It's important to allow your visitors to get
comfortable with you and your team. People are
more apt to buy from those whom they are more
familiar with, even if a competitor seems to
have a better offering. You can build this kind
of trust by adding bios to your about us pages,
talking about your self and your interests and
pointing out the organizations you belong or
participate in. You can also talk about your
particular experience in your industry,
detailing where you have particular expertise
and demonstrating your accomplishments.
Be careful who you link out to. While linking to
other reputable sites and services is a
positive, linking out to non-credible websites
can easily destroy the perception of
credibility. You should only link out to sites
that you feel provide a substantial benefit to
your visitors. If you're just building a link
directory for the sake of a link directory,
reconsider. Your reputation can be at stake.
In all, you want to "put your best face
forward", showing your visitors you have the
knowledge and credentials to provide them the
quality and results they expect.
Show that honest and trustworthy people stand
behind your site.
The first part
of this guideline is to show there are real
people behind the site and in the
organization. Next, find a way to convey
their trustworthiness through images or
text. For example, some sites post employee
bios that tell about family or hobbies.
This is probably one of the most difficult tasks
in establishing credibility. Anybody can talk a
good game and even be knowledgeable in the
product or service, but actions--and
results--speak a lot louder than words on the
web. Unfortunately, new visitors to your site do
not have your past actions to take into account,
only what you tell them about your past actions.
This is where you need to humanize yourself and
your staff. I'm not going to tell you to take a
staff picture with a dog and put that on your
website, but there is a reason why companies do
this. People like dogs and the dog humanizes the
staff and makes them appear to be kinder,
gentler, and more genuine.
People want to feel a connection in order to do
business. Without getting into the realm of
unprofessional, you can use bios to talk briefly
about your family, your interests and your
hobbies, but use that information to bring
people back to why you do what you do.
Your readers may find that they have something
in common with you such as number of kids,
enjoyments, interests or hobbies. This can help
them make that connection to you in that there
is something more here than a person out to make
a quick buck at their expense. If your visitors
can be made to feel like you're like them, then
they are more apt to spend their money with you
than some other faceless, nameless person or
organization.
Make it easy to contact you.
A simple way
to boost your site's credibility is by
making your contact information clear: phone
number, physical address, and email address.
This is a pet peeve of mine: going to a website
and not finding usable contact information.
Using web forms on your site is a great way to
gather information, but you really need more
than that to be credible. You should give your
visitors multiple ways to contact you. Phone
number, physical address and email address are
all necessary. I suggest that you make your
phone number visible on every page. Getting a
toll free number is a great help at looking
legit as well as it let's visitors know that
you're willing to give a little to get a little.
When it comes to ecommerce sites, I personally
won't buy from a store that does not have
visible contact information. With so many less
than reputable stores on the internet, I often
won't purchase from a store until I have talked
with someone via email or phone. If this
information isn't readily available, many
purchases will be made elsewhere.
Design your site so it looks professional (or
is appropriate for your purpose).
We find that
people quickly evaluate a site by visual
design alone. When designing your site, pay
attention to layout, typography, images,
consistency issues, and more. Of course, not
all sites gain credibility by looking like
IBM.com. The visual design should match the
site's purpose.
I've written about this extensively in my
EMP Book. For many industries, it's OK to
have a mom and pop feel to your website, but in
no case should you have a website that looks
circa 1992. As the look of the average website
has improved significantly over the past few
years, web users are expecting more from site's
they do business with. If your site looks like
something that was thrown up on a shoestring
budget, you're not giving your visitors much
confidence in how you run your business.
You need to look at your competitor's websites.
If your site cannot match or surpass them in
appearance then you need to consider a
re-design. It's tricky though, because much of
that is subjective. Usually, though, you can
easily tell when not much effort, or thought,
was put into the design of a website.
While a more professional looking site may be in
order, don't go overboard. Different industries
require different styles. Again, check out what
your competitors are doing and if there is an
overall consistency of tone, you might want to
try to find a similar tone with your site. In
other words, don't go corporate when your
competitors are going artsy. Don't go mom and
pop when your competitors are going high tech.
Don't create an overly busy website when your
competitors have opted for simplicity. But also,
don't trust your competitors to always make the
best decisions.
You know your audience, do what is right for
them, but by all means, give them a site worth
looking at and doing business with. If your site
has not undergone a major re-design in the past
few years, it's probably time to get one
underway. Even a minor facelift can do wonders
to improving the appearance of your site.
Make your site easy to use -- and useful.
We're
squeezing two guidelines into one here. Our
research shows that sites win credibility
points by being both easy to use and useful.
Some site operators forget about users when
they cater to their own company's ego or try
to show the dazzling things they can do with
web technology.
How do you make your site easy to use? Clear,
concise and consistent navigational elements.
It is important to let your visitors know where
they are on your site and how to quickly
navigate to where they want to be, or where they
need to click to get what they want. There are a
few very easy things you can do to accomplish
this:
Breadcrumbs: While most users do
not utilize breadcrumbs as a navigational
element, the simple presence of these allows the
visitor to know exactly what page they are on
and how deep into the site. They also provide a
one click option to get to each backward level
of your site.
Contextual Links: Don't rely on
your main right, left or top navigation to get
your visitors from point A to point B. While
these are an important part of your site, using
links within the text body of your website helps
drive visitors to areas of the site which
interest them, or to take the course of action
you desire.
Calls to Action: Whether it be
contextual links or obvious image that say
"click here to
", calls to action let your
visitors know where they need to go to get the
information they need.
Consistent Navigation: Sites where
the main navigation changes location from page
to page often confuse their visitors. Confused
visitors leave. They don't have time to "figure
out" your site; they can just as easily find
another site where the navigation is intuitive
to helping them find what they need. Make it
easy for your visitors as they flow from one
page to the next.
The other issue here is to make your site
useful. This is relatively easy to accomplish,
especially for those who know their stuff. If
you're trying to sell a product, don't just
offer that product, but provide information that
will help the visitor see why they should
purchase this product, and why they should
purchase it from you.
Providing extra information including features
and benefits of your product will help users
make the decision to buy. Adding information
such as pricing comparisons, warranties, and
quality customer service helps users realize why
they should purchase from you.
A useful site is a site buyers will return to
time and time again. Maybe you attract them with
the information as they do their research. Maybe
they don't buy from you today, but if your site
is one that provides them information that helps
them make their decision, you'll be the first
site on their mind when they are ready to
purchase.
Update your site's content often (at least
show it's been reviewed recently).
People assign
more credibility to sites that show they
have been recently updated or reviewed.
Have you ever been to a website and you could
tell the content was old and stale? Maybe it
wasn't obvious right away, but as you browse
through the site you begin to see things that
perhaps don't align with other things touted on
the website. Or maybe you see a "Valentine's Day
Special" still hanging around a weeks after
Valentine's Day.
Small thinks like this can really turn visitors
off. On the less obvious stuff you have a bit
more leeway--until someone actually recognizes
the contradictions--but on the obvious stuff, it
can be a clear sign that you're not paying
attention, leaving a potential customer
wondering what kind of care or service they'll
get from you.
Sure, you can make the argument that you're too
busy working for your customers to worry about
the small details on your own site like that,
but then that's assuming you get the opportunity
to make that argument. The potential customer
might have already bolted from your site.
Something else you often see on sites is a "page
last updated" blurb with the date. Things like
these tend only to be important for sites where
information frequently gets dated fast. For
commercial sites this can be handy if you need
to highlight new products added, but generally
there are better ways to do that. The best thing
to do is to simply make sure that your content
remains current and relevant to your products or
services.
Use restraint with any promotional content
(e.g., ads, offers).
If possible,
avoid having ads on your site. If you must
have ads, clearly distinguish the sponsored
content from your own. Avoid pop-up ads,
unless you don't mind annoying users and
losing credibility. As for writing style,
try to be clear, direct, and sincere.
Let's set the distinction here between
commercial sites and informational sites. Ads on
informational sites and blogs are fine and a
great way to create an additional source of
income. Of course, this only goes so far. Even
informational sites can lose their credibility
if you have too many ads or utilize annoying
popup/popunder windows.
On commercial sites, displaying ads that sell
similar or competing products/services or
directs visitors elsewhere to get what they came
looking for, is just plain silly and a terrible
marketing strategy. You might get a small stream
of "additional" income from these ads, but
undoubtedly it will be at your own expense in
the long run.
Commercial sites should be focused on selling
one thing... your own products or services.
Anything on the site that pulls visitors away or
interferes with that selling process is a bad
marketing strategy that will inhibit your own
ability to "sell" your visitors on what you
offer.
When writing content for your site, be sure to
keep your target audience in mind. If you
customers are more technologically savvy or
highly educated, then write accordingly. If your
audience is the average John or Jane Doe
Consumer, then write toward them. Whatever you
do, don't write above your audiences head, and
don't talk down to them either. While you won't
be able to please everybody, knowing your
primary target audience will ensure that you are
not insulting the larger percentage of your
audience.
You also want to be clear about what you offer.
Don't write to try and keep your visitors in
suspense about what your product or service is.
If it's appropriate, you can use sales jargon
that enhances the anticipation, but don't string
it out for too long, otherwise your visitors
will tire of seeking the payoff and go look for
your product or service somewhere else.
The best sites are those that are informative,
professional and don't resort to gimmicky
content or designs. The bottom line is that you
should treat your visitors as you would want to
be treated.
Avoid errors of all types, no matter how
small they seem.
Typographical
errors and broken links hurt a site's
credibility more than most people imagine.
It's also important to keep your site up and
running.
We all make mistakes. The worst are the little
things that are often overlooked but easily
correctable. Before publishing new content on
your website, take a few extra minutes to run
the content through a spell check program. Even
if you've made only a few minor edits, don't
assume that you don't need to double check your
work.
Just like any other form of medium, it's best to
get a third party to proof read your site's
content. Undoubtedly, they'll find something you
missed even after several proof reads of your
own.
Aside from spelling and grammar, you should
check your site regularly for broken links.
Allowing visitors to find broken links on your
site is just another way of letting them know
that your site is outdated or that you might not
have the proper infrastructure to handle their
needs. This is as good of a reason as any to
leave and purchase from a competitor instead.
Regularly check your site for broken links.
There are plenty of online tools that will
spider your site and give you a broken link
report quickly. Even if you have not made
changes to your site in a while, running a
broken link check will identify links to
external pages which may have changed or been
relocated. Regular checks will ensure that all
links, both internal and external, are
completely functional.
When it comes to credibility, you can't have too
much of it. Like trust, credibility takes time
to earn but can be lost with the smallest of
errors. Do your best to create a website that
speaks to your visitor's needs and gives them a
good user experience. Credibility won't come
instantaneously, but the more you provide to
enhance that the more business you'll be able to
generate.