47 Ways To Build Trust In Your Website/Blog

47 Simple Ways to Build Trust in Your Website or Blog
By Miles Galliford (c) 2007If your website does not create a sense of trust in your
visitors, all your efforts will be in vain. Your online
business will never succeed. That's the bad news. The good
news is that it is very easy to create and build trust in
your online visitors. Below, I have listed all the
techniques used by the hundreds of websites I have helped
launch. If you have additional techniques, please add them
to the list.

As the old saying goes, you have only one chance to make a
first impression. Building trust cannot be achieved by one
single action. Trust is achieved by hundreds of little
things you do throughout your website that, when taken
together, give readers a sense of honesty, legitimacy and
stability.

The other bit of good news is that few website owners focus
on building trust in the minds of their visitors. If you do
it well, it can become a real and sustainable competitive
advantage.

Here are 47 simple actions you can take to get started.

1. Trust is built by lots of small actions on every page of
your website.

2. Your website design is the first impression. Make sure
it is professional and relevant to the subject matter.

3. Navigation must be intuitive. If visitors can't find
what they are looking for easily, they will question your
competence in providing what they want.

4. Make the website personal by giving it its own tone and
voice. People buy people.

5. Follow the HEART rule of creating online content.
(Reminder: HEART stands for Honest, Exclusive, Accurate,
Relevant and Timely.)

6. Use language that is appropriate to the audience. It
will build empathy.

7. Regularly add new content to your site. It shows that
the business is alive and kicking.

8. Check all links. Doubts will quickly form in your
visitors' minds if links don't work or, worse still, take
them to error pages.

9. Good grammar and spelling matter. Errors give the
impression of sloppiness and carelessness.

10. Never make outrageous and unbelievable claims, like
"Read this blog and you'll be a millionaire by the end of
the week." People are used to scams, get-rich-quick schemes
and rip-offs.

11. Publish REAL testimonials and third-party endorsements.
Try to always use real names and link to websites where
possible. Some sites show images of letters sent by happy
customers.

12. Publish case studies about customers you have helped,
who use your product, etc.

13. Don't put down, curse or insult competitors. It's
unprofessional. It is better to offer an objective
comparison of competitive services or products.

14. Focus on building your long-term reputation, not on
making quick sales.

15. Write articles for humans, not search engines.

16. Make your 'About Us' page personal and comprehensive.
It plays an important part in making visitors feel
comfortable that real people are behind the site.

17. Publish your photo or the photos of the key people
involved with the site. Again, this reinforces the fact
that there are real people behind the screenshots.

18. Clearly identify who is behind the site. Nothing
creates more suspicion than a site that tries to hide the
identity of its publishers.

19. On the 'Contact Us' page, provide an email form, phone
number, fax and address of the company. In Europe, it is a
legal requirement for sites taking money, but even sites
driven by advertising will benefit from openness.

20. Provide a telephone number that people can call and
talk to a person.

21. Provide Web addresses linked to the website domain, not
addresses from free webmail services such as Hotmail and
Gmail.

22. Never lie to make money. The most common way is to
write a glowing report about a product or service to earn
affiliate revenues. It is very short-sighted to lie to
visitors to sell them rubbish. They'll never come back or,
worse still, they'll actively condemn your site on forums
and blogs.

23. Think carefully about reciprocal links. If your site is
about organic food and you have links to Party Poker,
people are going to question your integrity.

24. Think carefully about the adverts you display on your
site. Ensure that they are relevant to your subject and
audience.

25. Be explicit when you are being paid to endorse a
product or service. An advertorial is fine as long as it is
transparent. Paid-to-post is corrupting the Web and will
experience a user backlash. I never read websites that
accept payment for posting.

26. Write and publish your privacy policy. Be clear about
what you will and will not do with any personal data you
collect. State that you adhere to all data protection laws.
Make it easy to read and don't use legal gobbledygook.

27. Write and publish a security policy. State what
measures you take to ensure that all transactions are
secure.

28. Ensure that you have a security and privacy policy
which is linked from the footer on every page. Make the
link more prominent on all the order pages.

29. Clearly publish your guarantee. I would recommend
making it a 100% money-back guarantee if possible.

30. Clearly state your refund and returns policy.

31. Piggyback off reputable brands. If you use PayPal, put
the PayPal logo on your site. If you have a merchant
services account with a major bank like Citibank or HSBC,
put its logo on your site.

32. Use Google search on your site for two reasons. First,
it is a great search solution which will help your visitors
find what they are looking for. Second, having the Google
name on your site instills trust.

33. If there are well-known industry associations for your
subject, join up and put their logos on your site.

34. Have a forum on your site and respond quickly to
questions. Have the attitude that you are happy to help
others without receiving immediate reward. As the old
saying goes, 'Givers always gain.'

35. Allow people to comment on articles. Interactivity and
an exchange of views build community and a sense of
involvement.

36. If people provide constructive criticism or comments in
the forum, don't delete them, but respond with your point
of view.

37. Put photos on the website of the owners, publishers
and/or team. Let visitors know there are real people behind
the business.

38. Put images of the credit cards you accept on every page
of the order process.

39. Use the words 'secure website' whenever you try to get
any information from visitors, including newsletter
sign-ups, forum input and payment.

40. On every page, state, "We take your privacy and
security very seriously." Link the statement to the
security and privacy policy.

41. Remember, reputations take years to build and seconds
to destroy.

42. If you are selling a subscription, offer a low-cost,
entry-level option. This could be a one-day taster, 'a week
before billing starts' or a monthly trial.

43. Use a high level of security when processing credit
cards. Make sure you make your clients aware of all the
steps you are taking.

44. Never send credit card information or personal details
over the Internet unencrypted. Tell your customers that
their data will be encrypted.

45. Only ask for information from customers that you really
need. For example, for an email newsletter sign-up, the
only information you REALLY need is an email address, so
that is all you should ask for

46. If you have pricing on your website, make it
transparent. I recently went to buy a book which was
advertised for $10. When I checked out, they added tax,
post and packaging, and the final bill was $19.50. I didn't
buy it as I felt they had deliberately tried to mislead me.

47. Keep your SSL certificate up to date. Let people know
you are using SSL encryption and who the provider is.

You can never do too much to build trust. Most of it comes
down to common sense and good business practice. To ensure
that you are continually improving your trustworthiness,
every time you go to a website, ask yourself whether you
trust it or not. Then ask yourself why you have formed the
opinion you have. Continually try to learn what makes a
site trustworthy or untrustworthy and implement the
relevant changes to your site.

If people trust you, the money will follow!
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