In today’s business world, building customer trust takes 100 times longer than putting your website users off. Hence the importance of trying to avoid the Amanita-Muscaria-effect (see mushroom below!): your website may even be very attractive – but nobody actually ends up trusting it.
So, here are 10 reasons why internet users tend not to trust your website. Think about including this fixes in your New Year’s resolution – and your 2013 website sales conversion rate will definitely increase.
1. You have no About Us page
It’s no surprise that the About Us page is the second most visited page of your business website. Customers want to find out who you are before purchasing or even emailing you.
If your website has no About Us page, users will get very skeptical about your business. So, get it done today. Here are our Tips to write the perfect About Us page →.
2. Your Contact Us page has no information
I’ve seen hundreds of Contact Us pages in the last 2 years, featuring just a simple contact form. No email address, no phone number, no physical address, no company registration number: absolutely nothing.
Don’t forget website users are very different from your usual “live” customers: “internet people” don’t know you, can’t see you, and definitely don’t trust you by default. So, get your contact details fixed now – read our Tips to write the perfect Contact Us page →
3. There is no photo of YOU
You know who’s behind the big and the small companies. Even if you never met them. How? CEOs and business people tend to be all over the web, you hear about them in the news, you see their photos on magazines and newspapers.
Customers need to see who they will be dealing with. So, include a photo of YOU in your About Us and Contact Us pages. Your website will therefore become “real”. Also, think about writing down your name, and include a link to your LinkedIn profile.
4. There are no testimonials
Website testimonials work nearly as effectively as business recommendations and referrals. Testimonials add credibility and give your users a fair idea of how they can benefit from your business.
Make sure you publish short testimonials (I-had-this-problem-and-this-is-how-it-was-solved). Mention client names, surnames, website addresses and phone numbers if necessary: testimonials need to be real!
5. Your website is out of date
This is a very important one: internet users can be easily put off if your content and website design are not recent. Consider the following silly mistakes and go fixing them as soon as you can:
The copyright year at the bottom of your website is not the current year
You have an offer on your website that expired a year ago
Your latest blog post is dated 2011
You have an outdated calendar of events
Some internal links are broken
You have obsolete elements such as visitor counters, waving flags, flash animations
6. You wrote for the search engines, not humans
Search Engine Optimisation doesn’t mean “tricking Google” – it means keeping your website content relevant to your users. If your pages are stuffed with keywords and you keep repeating the same phrases all over again, please correct your copy and make it human-friendly.
7. Your copy is full of typos
Would you trust an advert if it had spelling mistakes? Would you ring that person if her business card had typos? Probably not. This is the same reason why your website should not have major typos or ridiculous spelling mistakes.
So, keep this task time effective and check your titles, your headlines, image captions and bold text first. Avoid typos there and you’re halfway through.
8. Your blog has no comments
This is a recent yet quite important issue. Many of us write blogs and leave the freedom to comment below. Despite a single post with no comments is totally fine, try to get at least one comment on any of your blog posts. Even if it is somebody you know.
Internet users want to know if you’re able to connect with your audience. So, how do you do it? Follow my suggestions here:
Contact some business people you know and ask them to comment
Use calls to action at the bottom of your blog posts
Write good, relevant content
9. You never answer to online reviews
I’ve seen a lot of Hotels and B&B on TripAdvisor or other websites that never reply to good or bad customer reviews. How bad is that? This is even worse than having no reviews at all.
Make sure you google the name of your business and answer to all the reviews that were left in the internet in the last few years. You never know what people are saying, so get active and spend some useful time!
10. You have no social presence
If you run a business, make sure you use LinkedIn. A few minutes are enough to build a complete profile. This can boost your customer trust.
Whatever you do, try to be present on at least one social media network. Internet users tend to double check if your business is “real” by looking at your Facebook posts, tweets or images you share. Be careful and be smart at the same time.