Ten guidelines to boost your Web site credibility

A Web site that puts your visitors at ease and shows off your professionalism is essential for the success of your online business. Let your potential customers concentrate on choosing which of your services or products to buy, rather than figuring out if your company is legitimate and still in operation. The following ten guidelines for Web site credibility are based on three years of research by Stanford University’s Persuasive Technology Labs. We have added comments and suggestions below each point on how to integrate these into your Web site.

1. Make it easy to verify the accuracy of the information on your site.

If you have quotes, statistics or reference research on your site, clearly state where you got your information and link to a Web site or pdf whenever available.

2. Show that there’s a real organization behind your site.

Demonstrate you’re a real organization by including a photo of your office building or images of the products you offer. You might also include your company history, business address or biographies of your founder, owner, or partners.

3. Highlight the expertise in your organization and in the content and services you provide.

In addition to providing legitimacy, your business can really shine when you demonstrate your skills and knowledge. Consider including your business affiliations, organizations you or your business are part of, your business partners, your management or partners’ accomplishemnts or prominent published works, pictures and descriptions of your products, client testimonials, and case studies of successful projects. Where appropriate, provide links to your partners, affiliations and accomplishments on external sites. Linking to other Web sites that do not appear credible will hurt though, so be sure to review your outbound links.

4. Show that honest and trustworthy people stand behind your site.

Incorporate biographies about your founder, president or team members as part of your Web site. Including photos of these team members adds more credibility by having faces to identify with.

5. Make it easy to contact you.

If you’re obscuring a means to contact you or your organization, your potential clients will wonder what you have to hide. When possible (and appropriate) include a phone number and physical address. At the minimum, include an email address or contact form, and make it easy to find!

To reduce spam, don’t provide your email address as a direct text link from your Web site. It will be easy for “spambots” to find and copy it. We recommend using a contact form. When designing your contact form, plan to include a response when your visitors successfully submit the form. This can be done as a thank you page, or you can send an email reply to their mailbox so they are assured their request was successfully sent and received.

6. Design your site so it looks professional (or is appropriate for your purpose).

If your Web site has poor quality images, inconsistent design or a broken layout, what does that say about how you run your organization? Consistent fonts, consistent color palettes and similar image style makes your information easier to absorb. Use quality images or photographs that don’t appear pixelated or jagged. A well-designed site will use typography, imagery and colors that suit your mission and theme.

7. Make your site easy to use — and useful.

Create your Web site with your visitors in mind. How will they interact with your site? Can they find what they’re looking for? Do they know how to order your product or service? Use clear navigation and provide multiple ways to navigate around your site. Consider if the latest flash animation or cutting edge navigation scheme is appropriate for your audience. It may look cool, but could be a source of frustration for your visitors. In addition, while it’s important to consider search engine optimization and online marketing, do not overload your Web site with keywords or excessive links.

8. Update your site’s content often (at least show it’s been reviewed recently).

A simple way to show your site is up-to-date is to make sure your copyright displays the current year. Other ways to indicate your site is regularly updated are by adding news, press releases or a blog posting often. Once a month updates are great, though every week or every few days is even better. If your Web site doesn’t look like it’s been touched in a year or two, potential customers may wonder if you’re still in business.

9. Use restraint with any promotional content (e.g., ads, offers).

Have you seen Web sites covered with Google Ads and Yahoo Ads, so much that it’s difficult to find and read the content on the page? At a minimum a lot of ads are distracting. Even worse, excessive advertising runs the risk of making a visitor wonder if a Web site is only a means for ad revenue or if it is actually offering a legitimate product or service.

A special offer for one of your own products or services is a great idea. Make it a bonus, not the main feature.

10. Avoid errors of all types, no matter how small they seem.

Every spelling error and broken link is distracting and unprofessional.

Proofread your writing before you publish it online. If you use a blog as part of your Web site, use the built in spellcheck feature. If your blog software doesn’t have a tool already installed, find one and install it. (If you’re using a WordPress blog like this one, take a look at the Spell Check plugin for WordPress.)

You can check for broken links (including broken image links and broken outbound links) on your Web site using the W3C Link Checker. Simply type in your full url and click the “Check” button. Be sure to put a checkmark in the box that says “Check linked documents recursively” so the tool will verify all the pages on your Web site. Any errors found will be highlighted in red with suggestions on how to fix them.

Good luck and have fun!

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