How to build trust with your website visitors

“What Makes a Website Credible” was a study published by Stanford University, USA, following three years of research. The study compiled “Ten Guidelines for Designing Credible Websites.” and although the study is almost 20 years old, its recommendations remain very relevant.

1. Make it easy to verify the accuracy of the information on your site.

You can build website 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.

We say: Providing customer reviews and leveraging social proof are great for this.

2. Show that there’s a real organisation behind your site.

Showing that your website is for a legitimate organisation 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 local chamber of commerce.

We say: Include links to social media channels and ensure Google My Business is up to date.

3. Highlight the expertise in your organisation 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 organisation? Make that clear. Conversely, don’t link to outside sites that are not credible. Your site becomes less credible by association.

We say: Include all professional memberships and accreditations, who you’ve worked with plus case studies. And review the quality of your back-links.

4. 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 organisation. Next, find a way to convey their trustworthiness through images or text. For example, some websites post employee bios, including information about hobbies. This helps to humanize the individuals –- and the organisation.

We say: Show the humans in the organisation with staff bios and photos

5. 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.

We say: Include a contact form and clear Calls to Action.

75% of web users admit making judgments about the credibility of a company based on the design of its website.

Stanford University

6. Design your site so it looks professional

(or is appropriate for your purpose).

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. The visual design should match the site’s purpose.

We say: The report also highlights that having a website created by an outside design firm adds further credibility.
Ahem, here’s a link to our contact page!

7. Make your site easy to use and useful.

We’re squeezing two guidelines into one here. The 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.

Websites lose credibility whenever they make it hard for users to accomplish their task at hand.

We say: Poor navigation is the number one reason visitors leave a site after 30 seconds. Also create customer centric content.

8. 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.

We say: That’s also what Google thinks.

9. Use restraint with any promotional content.

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; people hate them, and your site will lose credibility because you’re distracting users from their task. As for writing style, try to be clear, direct, and sincere. Avoid a promotional tone.

We say: Build connection first.

10. Avoid errors of all types, no matter how small they seem.

Spelling 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 say: Avoidable errors on your website place a nagging doubt in the customer’s mind that leads to customers asking themselves “can I trust this business not to make costly mistakes with my business?”

Conclusions

Here’s the TEN (actually 11) trust building items for your website.

  1. Have the website professionally designed by a specialist agency (I’m just quoting the research!)
  2. Provide links to all the source material referenced
  3. Provide your physical address details (not a PO Box)
  4. Include info on professional memberships, accreditations and who you’ve worked with
  5. Provide staff bios and photos
  6. Make it easy to contact you
  7. Make it easy for visitors to find what they’re looking for
  8. Provide customer centric content
  9. Keep content updated
  10. Moderate your selling
  11. Check and double check that no errors exist