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One of the most important things you can do for the future of your business' website is tackle your credibility
issues. If you need any other motivation, then I'll tell you this... websites meeting a moderate level of
credibility will have on average 17% more conversions. Feeling motivated?
This is all very easy stuff to make the customer feel safe and protected.
- Let the customer call you and make the information VERY easy to find. I like main page phone
numbers.
- Clear navigation, with bread crumbs.
- Make use of a company page. Include pictures like employees, your facility, or yourself. A short
company history is great here.
- Mission statements express your desire to succeed.
- Customer testimonials are excellent tools. Audio or video
are especially effective.
- Use a contact page for ALL of the rest of your company contact information. Give them options.
- Develop a FAQ page with your
most frequent questions to lighten your call load and express your expertise.
- If you have regular sets of instructions or explanations turn them in to pdf files and make a reference
library for your visitors to find them.
- Do not use Ad campaigns on your business' site. If your hosting puts Ads on your page, then upgrade,
it’s worth the money.
- Update your pages often and post the update date either manually or by script somewhere. You would be
surprised the number of users who check this.
- Follow up on all correspondence from users as quickly as possible. If it took longer than it should
have apologize and maybe give them a coupon. The small dollars you are losing will pay you back three fold
in word of mouth when they tell others how fairly you treated them.
- Describe and title your products accurately.
- Contribute to local and charitable causes. This doesn't even have to be financial. Then write a blurb
on your site about it.
- Every site, not just business, going forward should have a privacy page. It should contain a privacy
policy containing any information you collect and whether or not it’s stored, voluntary, sold, or shared.
Any material you own on the site and its license terms (like photos, trademarks, etc). Material belonging
to another you are using, and its license terms. True owners of the site and who manages and changes
content.
- Avoid unorthodox TLDs. Stick with .com, .net, .org, .edu, .mil, .gov, or country TLDs. Avoid .info,
.biz...etc. I will tell you though .us is becoming very widely used and respected.
- Show your email address in print. Use you domain extension for maximum credibility. Sales@YourSite.com.
I suggest you make an image of it to avoid the page scrappers from reading it with a spider and then
spamming you to death. Don't make it click able or the scrappers will have it.
- Do not make guests log in to shop... they'll just leave. Other sites are just a click away.
- Offer a newsletter sign up. Other user interactive areas will make your site more "human" and user
friendly, thus credible. Forums, blogs, shout boxes... these all require maintenance though.
- Only link to other trustworthy and credible sites. You are setting forth a standard, don't go messing
it up by referring out your visitor to a non credible site.
- Users like menus that are EASY to use... they do NOT like fly outs.
- Users like to search, and it should be easy to find.
- Include an html sitemap link on your pages for lost visitors. This is also a great tool for internal
linking and helping to increase the depth of the engine's crawls.
- Check your site regularly for broken links. Almost nothing is more frustrating to a user than, to
finally find the right page and it’s gone!
- You need a Process page. Customers love
this. This is a page where you run through the basic steps of a transaction, so they know what to
expect!
- Shipping information should be readily available and easy to figure out.
- Follow up all transactions with an email. Send all shipping updates and email. Provide tracking numbers
in an email. Provide a user account with this information the can log in to and check at a later date.
I am sure there are many more things to consider. The bottom line is, just like when many of you opened
you business initially, way before the Internet, you knew how you wanted to provide service. You had values and
ideals you wanted to behold in your business. This is your call to action. The Internet is giving you the
opportunity to provide those same qualities and values without losing to your competitors for not stepping on
heads.
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