In This Issue:
What Our Clients Say ...
The website FirstFound designed and built for us met all of our requirements. More content, better navigation, and a structure that the search engines had no trouble getting to grips with.
Ben McDougall,
Greystone Consulting Limited
Visually Establishing Trust and Making that Conversion
By Roger Davies
Have you ever visited a website and had second thoughts about buying? Perhaps you had spotted a couple of spelling errors in the copy, or a broken link? Maybe it was the amateur design? Whatever it was, suddenly you are starting to feel less comfortable about handing over your credit card details!
Establishing trust with your visitors is one of the bigger hurdles to overcome on the Internet. This is especially true of smaller businesses, websites and for expensive products. Potential customers cannot see the person behind the site, so asking someone to hand over a large amount of money requires a great deal of trust! You have tested your site, and know it works fine and double checked your copy. How else can you effectively build on that trust and give yourself the best chances of making that conversion? Fortunately, there are some simple but highly effective ways to establish that trust with your visitors visually.
Industry Approved Certificates
Are you approved by any recognised industry regulators or bodies? If you are a plumber, builder or electrician you will want to feature your CORGI registration details or any other certificates such as FENSA or BBA. You will be the best judge of what certificates are worth including, as you will have more knowledge about the industry than any SEO consultant or web designer.
Testimonials
Positive praise from happy customers provides an important cornerstone of trust for any industry. The testimonials need to be easily noticeable and should ideally be included on every page in your site, as we do not know which page your visitors will land on first. Be sure to check spelling and grammar carefully! Any errors (even if they were introduced by the person offering the quote) will raise doubts about authenticity.
Respect By Proxy
If you have been featured in any other mediums such as television or a magazine, say so! A simple: "as seen on Dragons Den" or "as featured in the Yorkshire Evening Post" immediately establishes some credibility. Equally, if you have done any work with famous companies or prestigious clients (and they are happy with the idea!) you could list some of the ones your visitors might recognise. Are you involved with any other online sites? If you have a company Facebook account or an eBay merchant account, maybe you can include a logo and link to it? Many other sites will carefully vet any fraudsters, and showing that you are a member of any of these will also help to establish some level of credibility.
Personal Qualification and Experience
It might be that you have a great deal of experience in your industry that is worth highlighting? The detailed background should usually be included in the 'about us' section, but you can always include summary snippets on each page. How many years have you been involved in the industry? Do you have any qualifications, skills or awards for good work? Not everyone can be a BAFTA award winning journalist, or Pulitzer Prizes winning literary genius, but even the humblest qualification gives the reader a realistic feel for your own background.
Assuming that your website is working, that there are no broken links, spelling or grammatical errors, these simple visual tactics can be used to establish greater trust with your visitors, and not only will it encourage people to stay longer but will also help to improve your conversion rate.