Cheryl Anderson
Every Business Needs Credibility
A professional website that functions properly and meets the end user's goals will give the business credibility.
For many customers, their first introduction to your business occurs on your website. Your main goal, once they arrive, is to instill a sense of trust. Who needs credibility? How do you inspire confidence? And how important is it?
How does it work?
Every business that wants to be successful will wish those who engage with their business to gain trust. Credibility and authority will attract customers, employees, and investors. "credibility currency" is for every business, especially if you are a new start-up. It can also work in your favor when hiring good employees, applying for loans, negotiating terms, or requesting an extension on credit.
Ways to inspire confidence with customers and Google:
Website visitors decide to stay on your site within seconds. If you have a high bounce rate (people leaving your site quickly), engaging potential customers through forms, videos, and a chat are a few ways that will give you better business results and a higher ranking on Google. Google finds your site credible if you provide backlinks from other sites to yours. A form to find out what customers are looking for is another great way to gain credibility with customers.
- 75% of customers base credibility judgments on a website's design.
- 48% of eCommerce customers rely on trust marks.
- 88% refer to online reviews & customer testimonials
- 46% look for clear contact information
- 60% want detailed product information & videos
- 51% want clear return policies and a comprehensive FAQ section
What Is Website Credibility?
Website credibility is somewhat of an ambiguous characteristic. While it's true that studies prove most people more easily trust esthetically pleasing websites, expectations also play a significant role.
Two essential factors for building your credibility are trustworthiness and expertise. If your site convinces visitors of your experience and knowledge, honest and reliable (trustworthiness), you have the power to influence their behaviors and attitudes toward your brand. They'll give you their personal information, revisit your site, and hold favorable opinions about you and your brand.
You must nail the following ten criteria to build your site's credibility.
- An Attractive, Professional Website Design
- Make Sure Your Site Is Functional and Error-free
- Make Your Site both Useful and Easy to Use
- Make Sure You Know What the Intention of Your Site Is
- Prove that Real People Back Up Your Site
- Offer Proof of Your Expertise
- Update Content Regularly
- Prove Your Accuracy with Citations and Sources
- Practice Restraint with Promotional Materials
- Provide a Clear Means of Contacting You
Although it's one of the most critical elements on your site, we placed this last because that's where the Contact page should be on your site: at the end.
Of course, contact information means more than a dedicated Contact page. Providing visitors multiple ways to reach you (phone, email, Web form, and physical address) helps build your site's credibility. It also makes it easy for your potential customers to reach you, and anything you can do to help a potential customer become an actual customer should shoot to the top of your To Do list.
Don't ignore mobile optimization here. Nowadays, nearly everyone has a smartphone, and most use that phone to research businesses. If you offer these mobile users a single button to call your business, you're doing at least one thing right.
Conclusion
Website credibility is the natural result of purposeful Web design, and it does two things. (1) It instills a sense of trust in your organization. (2) It demonstrates your expertise.
You need a professional, attractive website design, free from errors and typos, to accomplish this. It must provide helpful information in an easy-to-access form and represent the site's purpose, such as e-commerce, informational, or content.
Demonstrate that real, qualified people operate your business, and feel free to brag about how great you all are. Offer visitors regularly updated content with the sources to prove your content's accuracy and authority.
Finally, practice restraint with promotional materials, and make it super simple for customers to contact you. Once you accomplish each item, you'll have a trustworthy, respected, and credible website.
Are you ready to build a website that sends the right message?
Contact The EZ Web Solutions. info@theewebsolutions.com
