Summary:Want someone to purchase your terrific product or service? In addition to what you sell, make sure you offer them a trustable you too.
Have you ever visited a web site and been attacked by screaming pop-up ads, gotten lost in clutter and banner ads, have things flash and go boom? On the other hand, have you ever visited a site that was informative, easy to navigate and generally pleasant to peruse?
Which site gained more of your trust? Which site would you revisit? The more user friendly building tools you use on your site .... the more trust will be developed with your viewers. Following are some trust-building ideas to consider when developing your own website:
Purchase your own domain name - free of all advertisements (unless you sell, recommend, or are an affiliate of those products). You want to sell your visitors on the content of your site - not the products of other advertisers.
When searching for a host for your site, look for packages that include POP3 accounts (preferred) and alias accounts (second in line). This will enable you to send email from your site (you@yourbusiness.com) which looks much more professional than you@freeemailaccount.com It is easier to trust someone who has evidently made an investment in their business.
Provide a phone number, your hours of operation (including time zone), business mailing address and email address. PO Boxes are not considered addresses. Many companies won't deliver to PO Boxes, and many visitors won't purchase from you if you use one. Work from home? Add a suite or building number to your home/apartment. Or use a service such as Mailboxes Etc. for a real address.
Place at least one way for your visitor to contact you on each page and place your webmaster's contact information on at least the bottom of the front page. This way your visitors can request information from you......and if there is a problem with your site they can write to the webmaster. Even if you and the webmaster are the same person, place the webmaster's e-mail address on the site anyway.
Keep the content of your site current (no more than 6 months old) and include "Last Updated _________" on each page. Even if you don't change the site information (because it is completely correct and updated) do keep the date current.
Place your picture on your "About Me/Us" page. Do you have a staff? Place their pictures on the site too. Provide the name of the President or Executives on the contact page.
Secure your site for purchases.
Do you have an "ENTER" page? You will lose visitors who will go "find" some other site to visit that shows them information right away. Worse than an enter page is an enter page that forces someone to download a program (such as Flash). If you want to use the option of Flash pages, fancy pointers etc., give people the option of viewing them at their convenience.
Include tags with your images to assist the disabled and the hundreds of thousands of people all over the world who use library "text only" computer programs.
Insure that a majority of your pages load in less then 20 seconds at 56K. Many will not stick around much longer than that and will simply move on.
Ask your clients for testimonials and permission to use their whole name on your site.
Put your site though a spell check or a good proofreader
© 2000-2001 Maria Marsala, Special Projects Coach, www.coachmaria.com