Trust is the cornerstone of a profitable website. It doesn’t matter how engaging your calls to action are or how well written your content is—you must first establish confidence in your brand. A failure to do so can lead to a high bounce rate and a shrinking customer base.
If you want people to explore your website, engage with your brand and regularly buy your goods and services, read the nine ways below to make your website more trustworthy:
1. Feature genuine testimonials
Visitors are more likely to view your products and buy from your website if you feature testimonials on your landing pages. For instance, you could reach out to your past clients or customers to ask them for feedback on your goods and services.
Prove the reviews are from genuine customers by featuring their name and photograph alongside their feedback, which will add a human element to your site. The more positive the reviews on your website, the more visitors you will convert into customers.
2. Showcase high-profile client logos
Make people want to choose you over a competitor by featuring high-profile logos of your past and current clients on your site. For example, if you have worked with a high-profile brand, or if a reputable publication has mentioned your company in an article, feature “our clients include” or an “as seen on” montage of clients or publishers.
3. Find the right payment processor
Increase trust in your brand by integrating a secure payment processor into your website, which will ensure you continually provide your customers with a safe and reliable credit card processing system. For example, contact respectable merchant account providers to customize a program to suit your site’s needs.
4. Incorporate HTTPS encryption
Hyper Text Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) is a prerequisite for establishing website trust. It is simply a more secure version of HTTP, which is the application protocol that sends data from a browser to a website. If your site does not feature HTTPS encryption, a user will be less likely to trust your site, so they will probably turn to a more secure online competitor.
5. Promote your awards and certifications
Promoting your accolades isn’t bragging. You will simply be informing your visitors that you are an honest, respected brand, which will make visitors feel safe when inputting their personal and financial information into your website. So, if you have received an award or secured an industry certificate, don’t be afraid to showcase your achievements on your homepage.
6. Provide a product or service guarantee
A guarantee on a product or service can go along way towards building trust in your brand. For example, you could feature a satisfaction assurance on your product pages or offer a free trial. It will prove to your customers just how much you believe in your product, so they will be more likely to add a product or service into their shopping cart.
7. Establish an attractive web presence
Improve your brand’s trustworthiness by establishing a solid web presence. If a visitor is unfamiliar with your brand, they might want to learn more about your business online before they decide to become a customer.
Promote your business on various social media platforms, such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram, which you should also integrate into your site. Also, aim to increase your appearance on external websites, which will prove your company is regularly recommended by top publications.
8. Publish an informative ‘About’ page
Many online websites underestimate the importance of an ‘About Us’ page, but it is one of the easiest ways to build trust. Visitors don’t want to buy products and services from faceless entities, so this essential page will help you to build a personal connection with a potential customer. It will also help you to develop a tone of voice, which can make your site more appealing and approachable, which could convince a web visitor to make a purchase.
9. Humanize your site
As stated, visitors don’t want to buy from a faceless business. Prove there are honest, hard-working people behind your brand by featuring their faces and your office space across your website, which will humanize your organization.
For instance, introduce your visitors to your employees, stating who they are and what they do. You also could feature photos from events you and your employees have attended. People will be more likely to trust your business if they can put a face to a name and prove you are who you say you are.
