01 Mar 9 Ways to Build Trust with Visitors to Your Website

Trust is a major issue with blogs and websites.  When new readers or potential clients click on your content that first impression makes or breaks the visit. 

Most bloggers and websites focus on what they want and give less attention to what their visitors think and feel about the experience.  

Trust is the difference in the visitor staying and coming back or leaving and avoiding returning. A trusted brand will create repeat visitors, word of mouth networks, improved sales and improve analytics helping you rank.

Create Videos

Don’t link to other videos, make your own.  Making a video takes time and attention to detail. It’s both expensive in equipment and knowledge.  Either that effort came out of you directly or you paid a pretty penny for it.  Either way, it provides instant credibility.  

It’s preferred to do the video as yourself, but you can hire actors or use animation.  When a visitor can put a face to a site it creates a bond.  

Consumers like to consume, and video is delicious.  Often being the preferred source of information. Visitors are much more likely to watch your full video over reading all the content on your page.

Avatar

You may have a team, or you may provide the content all on your own.  Either way, people want to see who is providing the information.  You want your smiling mug front and center.  It’s tempting to pull images off Google, but many savvy people are now image searching avatars to see if they are fake.  You blow all credibility when you get caught so I suggest you use the real deal.  

Along with your real deal get an add-on that allows you to write out a little about yourself.  A brief sentence or two that explains who you are and what you like to do.  It’s like a dating profile but they just want to see who is on the other side of the screen.

Bring out that personality and crack a joke or say something awkward and funny.  It humanizes the process and people relate.  

If the real deal is really scary, consider using a licensed image or illustration.  Make sure either image or illustration is unique and doesn’t pull up search results on Google.  Use photoshop, etc.

Show Me Your… Financial Reports!

Not very exciting but transparency is a big turn on when building trust.  Either through known third-party review sites like Trust Pilot or with company reports.  Depending on your business type or topic, people are interested in what happens behind the scenes.  A perfect clean profile with one hundred five star reviews is worse than having some dirt.  Not everyone is perfect, and people want to see that openness with a site. 

Not everyone is going to have a great experience, your traffic isn’t always going to be at a 20% growth rate.  You aren’t always going to make goals quarterly.  

Document your progress in any way that fits your site or blog and do so honestly.  Honesty breeds trust.  Nothing makes you more trustworthy than making a handful of negative reviews public from people who downright hate you and whatever it is you do.  Seriously. 

When you read reviews for products, books or services, what do you look for?  The negative right?  Name one service or product you bought that didn’t have any negative reviews.  Show your dirt, show your reports.  Build that trust!  

Community

Excitement and passion come and go.  How excited were you when you started your business or blog?  A lot right?  Yea, well it takes a lot of energy to get something going.  At times during your growth, you’re going to not feel it.  Not today, just not feeling it.  For me, it happens when responding to comments.  It’s daunting.

Half the time I just want to say, “Did you read the article?”  No, no you didn’t.  The answer was right there.  Or comments that don’t really fit the topic or that ask for a ton of work/effort on my part to answer for the visitor.

That can take a lot out of you, but this is where trust is built.  Just like you, many of the readers are going to be annoyed by the guy that asks the question already answered.  However, taking the time to answer shows your heart.  It shows that you truly want to help, you don’t judge the poor guy and are willing to give up your time for your community.

Comments show in search results and questions asked often parallel questions searched.  Encourage, and entertain them.

Don’t leave Melissa hanging either.  Although she didn’t ask a question and just said some random bot generated comment with an attempt to get her website listed even though your blog comment section is in nofollow format, say thank you!  Visitor’s don’t know the difference and will appreciate the fact you read and respond to every comment.  Trust baby!

As Seen on Forbes!

You may not know this but places like Fox News and Forbes have article generators that allow companies, sites and people to make their own articles or press releases and publish them under their branding.  It costs money and it isn’t going to show up on Fox News or Forbes main outlets for information, but it can help you rank with backlinks and looks good on your site when a visitor clicks it and gets taken to a branded Forbes site.

Most people don’t know the difference between Forbes press release archive and Forbes Magazine.  You can search online for press release providers and write your own.  Depending on the distribution package you pick you can list links to the article’s location.

Even people that are familiar with the cheese of press releases will trust you because if you weren’t legit you wouldn’t shell out for the service.  It can run a few hundred dollars.

Testimonials

Be careful to do this one right.  Please.  Don’t just list Debra said this or that in a nice bubble chat box.  James L. said this!

You need to list legit people with backlinks.  Debra the CEO of GH Company.  Provide a link to her profile or website.  Real people.  

You will lose trust if you don’t.  It’s far too easy to fake testimonials and most people do.  They are easy to verify by visitors and it’s an immediate turnoff if they are vague.  Ask a few clients that have public profiles if you can get a testimonial and in return provide a do follow link in their profile.  Not sure many would turn that offer down.

Reachable

It’s tempting to kind of put a barrier between you and your visitors.  More and more companies online are limiting access.  Typically, just email only.  It costs a ton to have an open customer service line.  Especially if your site or blog is service related.  You end up being used as an interactive voice version of Google and hand out free consultations left and right. 

Same with online chat software.  Both can get daunting especially if you start to grow.  What I suggest to others is direct people to a question and answer page on your site.  Make it simple and easy.  Below that, if they still want to reach you provide an email form that has spots, they need to answer that helps them narrow down what it is they want.

If you can have phone access, try a form they need to fill out to set up a meeting.  That way if the issue is, “How much is it for the basic package?” You can easily funnel that to an email instead of setting up a time to talk.

If you are truly blessed and have an 800 number with a customer service team, make that sucker front and (semi) center on your pages.  

The goal is to find a happy medium where people feel they can access you balanced with what your means are.  If you can’t man a customer service line don’t provide the illusion of one.

Professionalism

Tempted by the awesome and free Blogger platform?  Would save you hundreds!  No, you want to adjust and style a professional theme.  Hosted WordPress is a strong bet, with other paid providers available.  You can immediately tell the level of effort that went into a site in the first second of looking at the page.  

In today’s world, it’s simple to design your own blog or website.  Worst case it’s cheap to hire someone if you need to.  Clean, direct and to the point themes are perfect.  Check out examples of sites you love and make it your own.

Trust comes for someone who clearly put effort into the consumer experience.

Free Stuff and Good Stuff

What better way to show what you offer then by giving a taste for free.  Perfect for content providers or services that require content consuming.  Common ways would be to provide an ebook or video to people that sign up with your site.  

You can do this by also providing authoritative content on your site and posts. If you are providing information in a way that is unique, helpful or makes something simple, it will attract people to your brand and make you trustworthy.  The act of giving is often reciprocal. The giver feels they need to give in return and that means more conversions.