Rachel Begg
Gaining your website visitors’ trust is the basis of the success of your internet marketing. Your website should be a representation of your business philosophy and ethics.
If your business wants to be successful online, then notions of a fly-by-night operation need to be avoided by all means. We put together four web design recommendations that will help you to gain your online visitor’s trust and convert visits into leads and sales.
1. Consistent Branding
We can’t stress it enough: your online presence needs to be a logical extension of your off-line branding. What does this mean? Think about your neighborhood’s chain grocer and you will recognize the consistent branding. From the signage outside, to the labeling of isles, to the branded grocery bags and the consistent color scheme throughout the store. Now, what do you think their website would look like? Correct, a lot like these stores.
Make sure not to confuse your customers with a website look that does not follow the same consistent branding message as your brick and mortar operation. And make is easy for the prospects who visit your site to recognize the same design elements used on your site in your off-line branding.
2. User-Friendly Navigation
Make it easy for your website visitors to find what they are looking for. Really, there is no value in trying to push them through a labyrinth of pages. Whether for the customers who most frequent your business, or for the prospect who visits your site for the first time: people have short attention spans and any distraction or difficulty will send them off flying.
Spend some time when setting up your website structure and navigation to make it as intuitively and progressive as possible. Think of your business's different buyer personas and what they are looking for and structure your navigation and content accordingly.
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3. Clear Contact and Checkout Information
Yes, really, we have seen numerous websites with no obvious placement of their contact information. What’s the point of hiding when your prospects are ready to buy? Best practice is to place your preferred contact method, such as your phone number, at the most obvious location of your website: the upper right corner. Furnishing complete contact details helps in establishing the credibility of your website.
For eCommerce websites, make sure that your site offers a simple checkout system in as few steps as possible and have customer-care professionals available to answer the incoming toll-free calls and offer high-quality customer service.
If you don’t offer eCommerce on your website, then make sure to tell your visitors what next step you want them to take.
4. Professionally Written Content
Nothing destroys consumer confidence more than poorly written or edited website copy. It is absolutely crucial to make sure that your copy reads well – even after your SEO provider wreaked havoc on it. Web copy needs to strike a balance between keyword-heavy copy to attract search engines and content that’s actually written for human eyes.
To gain your online visitors’ trust, your website needs to have copy that is relevant for the target audience, well-written, and grammatically correct without spelling errors. Yes, we know how easy typos make it onto a website. The solution is to carefully proofread each page of new copy. Even better, let a trusted friend or relative review your website for errors and formatting mistakes.
Regardless of which company you choose for your website development and design, make sure that you think of the concepts above. Feel free to Contact us for a Free 30-Minute Internet Marketing Consultation or Download our Free eBook on the 5 Steps of Successful Website Design.
