How to Establish Credibility on Your Web Site

Look professional

The visual design of a site is often the first test of a company's credibility. By establishing your site as professional and trustworthy, your visitors will be encouraged to read on about what you have to offer. A professional appearance can be achieved by:

• Maintaining a pleasing visual design
• Keeping your layout clean and readable
• Avoiding unnecessary clutter
• Use of proper spelling and grammar
• Use of a common, easy-to-read font such as Arial

When desinging your site present a clear and consistent identity

A clear and consistent image is important both within your web site and across all media. Coordinating web design, print and marketing will help you convey a professional image, thus establishing credibility.

• Each page of your web site should have a similar look in order to establish identity and avoid visitor confusion due to out of place pages
• A hodgepodge of colours, fonts, and layouts among media may send the message that your company lacks organization and attention to detail
• When your print ads, business cards, etc. have a commonality with your web site, clients can immediately identify your company when conducting a search.

Also when designing your web site make sure that your site is easy to use and useful. 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. Use clear and concise 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. Refer to our web site navigation article for some ways to accomplish this.

Use third party support

This can be by linking out to references or using testimonials to promote your product or service. 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. Additionally, use third-party testimonials.

People respond even better to testimonials provided by someone whose name they recognize and respect. A strong testimonial can confirm your credibility by reinforcing the value of your product or service. You can obtain testimonials by:

• Asking visitors who have sent you compliments if you can publish them
• Ask satisfied clients for comments on your product or service

Provide your all contact details - online and offline

Be sure to remind your visitors that you don't exist only in cyberspace. Your company's full contact information should appear on our home page. Make sure your site contains as much contact information you can provide. Phone, email, physical address, fax, etc. This is especially important if you have an offline business - but include it even if you do not.

Many businesses rely on contact forms and forgo the written contact information. This is a mistake. The 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 this is the case, you don't want to advertise that fact.

Include a privacy statement

A privacy statement works to protect the personal information of your visitors and potential clients. Your privacy statement should be easily accessible on your web site and disclose the following:

• The personally identifiable information collected
• The name of the collecting organization
• The intended use of the information
• The users of the information
• The choices available to users in the information collection,use and distribution
• The security procedures in place to protect against loss, misuse or alteration of information
• The procedure for how users can correct inaccuracies in the information

Web site content

Try to add to your web site on a regular basis, whether it is adding new pages or reviewing exisiting ones. People assign more credibility to sites that show they have been recently updated or reviewed. When writing for your web site try to 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.

Read more about writing web site content in our content article.

Be clear on What Newsletters Subscribers Are Getting

• On your sign up form, inform your readers of the frequency of the newsletter
• Provide a link to some sample newsletters so that potential readers can determine if it is of interest to them

By taking steps to ensure readers are going to be happy with the newsletter, you can avoid cancelled subscriptions and promote customer loyalty.

Don't put your website in the hands of a novice! You need a website which will help you to establish credibility, which is search engine friendly, and which allows you to measure your business goals such as sales or leads.