website trustMake Your Website More Trustworthy With These Elements

Do visitors trust your website? You can’t expect to run a successful online business if visitors are uncertain about your website’s intentions. Thankfully, however, there are simple ways to create a more trustworthy website, which we’re going to discuss further in today’s blog post.

 

Custom Web Design

Don’t make the mistake of using the same cookie-cutter template/web design that’s being used by thousands of other websites. The allure of using a “free” template may sound enticing, as it reduces your total expense of launching a website. But the problem with these free templates is that they are often used by thousands of websites, creating a generic look and feel that visitors distrust. If you are serious about creating a positive online presence, spend the extra money and invest in a custom website design. Doing so will allow you to begin building your brand rather than simply incorporating a few key elements into a generic website template, such as your logo.

 

Trust Seals

Adding certain “trust seals” to your website can also make it more trustworthy in the eyes of visitors. A recent Baynard survey of 2,520 regular Internet users found the Norton Secured seal to offer the greatest sense of trust, with 35.6% of respondents viewing it as the most effective. Coming in second was the McAfee Secure seal (22.9%), followed by the TRUSTe seal (13.2%), Better Business Bureau (13.2%), Thawte (6%), Trustwave (3.2%), GeoTrust (3.1%), and Comodo (2.8%). Keep in mind that some of these trust seals have certain requirements that must be met in order to display them on your website.

 

Customer Reviews

We can’t talk about trust signals for websites without mentioning customer reviews. There’s a reason why Amazon, the world’s largest and most profitable online retailer, allows customers to post reviews: because it instills greater trust in shoppers, and thus boosts their sales in the process. A study conducted by the BrightLocal revealed that 88% of Internet users have read online reviews to determine the quality of a local business. Whether your business is local or not, though, allowing customers to post reviews will instill greater trust.

 

Social Signals

Last but not least, try adding social signals to your website to make it more trustworthy. This may include widgets that display how many Facebook ‘likes’ your site has received; the number of Twitter tweets/retweets; Google +1s, and more. When a visitor lands on your website and sees that over a thousand people have ‘liked’ your website on their Facebook accounts, they’ll feel more at ease making a purchase.