Can I really trust this company? That’s the question your prospective customers will ask when they arrive on your website via search engines and social media.
People make snap judgements about websites, just like they do when meeting someone new.
The credibility of your website has a direct impact on your bottom line and your ability to generate leads and sales. It’s your shop window for the world to judge you.
1. Ensure your website is visually appealing
Prettier websites gain trust. 70% of people claim they would not buy from a company with a badly designed website and first impressions are 94% design related.
2. Put a human face on your business
Uploading pictures of your team members helps prospective customers get a better idea of who is behind the company – people buy from people.
3. Update your site’s content
People assign more credibility to sites that show they have been recently updated. Nothing is more off-putting when you are considering whether to do business with a company than old news and inactive social media accounts.
4. Quality content is SEO Gold
Google has confirmed that producing quality content that isn’t overly stuffed with keywords is one of the top three ways to get a better search engine ranking. One-third of your SEO comes from the content on your website and blog. The further you are up that search engine ranking the more credible you become.
5. Blog regularly for increased visits
Blogging from your website can have a positive impact on your online presence. Google indexes more of your pages when you put up regular blog posts, and this can help drive traffic to your site. Blogging helps build your credibility and can increase traffic by 55%.
6. Let your customers do the talking
Testimonials, reviews and endorsements go a long way towards convincing your visitors of your credibility. Testimonials are the next best thing to word-of-mouth.
7. Improve your website load time
Websites that take a long time to load affect your credibility and give the wrong impression. Impatient web users flee slow-loading websites. The faster the site loads, the more users have confidence and trust in your site and business.
8. Try to avoid errors of all types, no matter how small they seem
Typographical errors and broken links hurt the credibility of a site and business more than people could imagine. It is important to keep your site error free and up and running.