As a webmaster it's important to gain the trust of your visitors as soon as they arrive at your web site. In this post I'm going to share my top 10 tips to help gain your visitors trust.
1. Have a contact phone number on your web site. Even though most visitors will never actually call you, displaying your phone number gives them peace of mind knowing that if they ever do have a problem you're only a phone call away.
2. Register your site with BBB and TrustE.org. The Better Business Bureau (BBB) and TrustE.org are independent nonprofits that review and providing seals of trust for web sites of all types. They employ strict controls to make sure your web site is trustworthy and you publish and abide by a true and ethical privacy policy. Having the BBB and TrustE seals on your web site can increase sales by more than 50%.
3. Choose the right domain name. We all know you can register [http://www.cheap-cell-phones.com] to rank highly in search engines for the keywords "cheap cell phones", but generic domain names like this do not help when you're trying to build a reputable brand name. If you want to gain your customers trust register a domain name that includes both keywords and your own unique identity, such as JohnsCellPhones.com or Johns-Cell-Phones.com.
4. Have a detailed "About Us" page. Tell your visitors about the history of your web site as well as the team behind the scenes. Include brief biographies and pictures of staff members, as well as any relevant facts including how long your company has been in business, if you have more than one office, if you have partners, etc.
5. Release regular press releases. Sites such as PRWeb.com will publish your press releases online for a small fee. You can create a press release when you launch a new product or stock new items. You should also post the press releases in the "News" section of your web site for customers to read.
6. Never break a promise. If you tell your newsletter subscribers that they will receive your newsletter and only your newsletter, do not go sending them advertisements or "partner emails" the day after they signup. They will unsubscribe quicker than you can say "empty subscriber list".
7. Write and publish articles. Become an expert on a topic related to your web site. If you sell golf clubs online, write an article about how to choose the perfect golf club and post it on free articles sites such as GoArticles.com. Post it on your home page too. Keep your articles short and to the point and DO NOT advertise your products or services in the article. Customers will read your articles and after they have read a few of them they will find it refreshing that you're not shoving a product down their necks and you will earn their trust quickly.
8. Offer a refund guarantee. Even at the best of times most people are cautious about buying anything online. Create and post a solid refund guarantee on your web site. Include your refund policy, and also explain how you legitimately refund all requests (within reason, of course) and include contact details so customers can contact you if they actually do need a refund. You could even take it one step further and include testimonials from customers who you have reimbursed with them explaining how happy they were with the process of obtaining their refund.
9. Post web site links, email addresses or photos with customer testimonials. Never ever post a testimonial without any details of the person who sent you the testimonial. Always include the person's web site link, email address and / or photo (with their permission, of course). Also, do not post "typical" testimonials on your web site. By typical I mean testimonials that will not make your visitors say "WOW". Only post really commendable testimonials that praise your products, customer support or both.
10. Let them know about your secure ordering process. If you use SSL (secure sockets layer) to process your orders securely make sure your customers know that you take security seriously. Include an image of a secure padlock at the bottom of your checkout page, along with some text like this: "We take your privacy seriously and use 128 bit SSL encryption to process all orders. Order securely 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year ".