Web Design Development Articles

Trust is, perhaps, one of the most valuable on-line commodities. It doesn’t matter whether you are hosting an informational site, or whether you are hosting an e-commerce site; if your site visitors have no reason to trust you they have no reason to stay on your site, purchase from your site, or believe the information detailed on your site. This is especially important when a full 65% of Internet users don’t trust the information they receive on the Web (according to a survey cited by Gerry McGovern. Pretty daunting number, eh? This is why it is so important that you pay real close attention to the information you present, your on-line practices, and your presentation.

Elevate Your Visitor’s Perception Of Your Site

You might wonder how to begin earning the trust of a skeptic in the first place. After all, isn’t it difficult enough to win someone over when you’re working with them face-to-face and able to use all forms of communication? How much more difficult is it to earn someone’s trust when only two to three of the five senses are being used? This is why people hire professionals to design their site.

Sure, you could go out and utilize one of those free hosting companies, save yourself some bucks, and eventually upgrade to a paying hosting service, but you’re starting out three miles down instead of swimming at the surface by doing so. No, the first step towards earning your potential customer’s trust is to develop a professional-looking site. Whether you hire a professional Web designer, or you’ve the know-how to do it yourself, just make sure that it is crisp, easy to navigate, and presents your message without distraction, delay, or unnecessary frills.

When you consider that your average visitor will decide within 5 seconds whether they want to stay, or move on, you’ve really got to pay attention to what you’re presenting hot off the grill. The professionally designed site will do more for you in keeping potential customers on your site than almost any other initial marketing. Your customers will recognize that you’re serious about your offering; so serious that you’ve invested either the time, or money, to build something that presents nicely, and they’ll be more likely to respect you for it than if you hadn’t. You’ve just elevated their perception of your offering.

Accurately Portray Your Offering

Now that you’ve captured their attention, you’ve got to keep them there, right? Trust can only be earned if they value your offering, and your offering can only become valuable should you make sure the following points are met:

• You’ve done your research;
• You’re honest in your presentation;
• You are not derogatory or mean in your presentation;
• You can back it up with facts.

I recently spoke with a university professor who stated that they don’t allow their students to utilize the Internet as a resource on their papers unless the student can accurately back up the qualifications of the Internet Source, and then they are only allowed to use two maximum Internet resources! This is happening when that same report cited above states, “By far the leading metaphor for the Internet, in the public’s mind, is not a ’shopping mall’ or ‘banking and investment office,’ but rather ‘a library…’” and where else do you go to find information but at a library? Again, this is a derivative of the level of trust in the information available on the Internet. Provided you’ve upheld your end of things we might be able to get this turned around, and how nice would that be for all of us?

Do Your Research, and Back It Up

When presenting information of any sort to your customer base you’ll want to make sure that you’ve done enough research to back up your claims, and that means providing your readers the opportunity to debunk your claims by giving them reference to your sources. If someone feels you are trying to hide something, they’re quick to leave, but the more reference you can use, the more an individual realizes that you are not only well-read and educated, but not afraid to stand behind your claims, and that’s more value than you can spit at.

Be Honest

You’ve no idea how many times I’ve come across claims on-line that just don’t sound viable let alone reasonable, and after further research you discover that they were made out of ignorance. Please, please, please, please, please…if you don’t know, don’t make something up. We’ve a joke that runs around the office on occasion, being recycled as necessary: 99.5% of all statistics are made up, including this one. While the joke makes people smile, there’s that underlying truth to the statement that is unfair to the research industry, but was born from the contagion of falsehoods and half-truths rampant on-line. If you don’t know, say you don’t know, but then find out and become the expert.

Be Nice

If you’ve ever watched an election process you’ve been privy to some pretty underhanded messages aptly called Negative Advertising. You know the kind: Candidate A did not vote for proposition 3. Candidate A does not believe in the value of the traditional family unit. Candidate A does not…blah, blah, blah, yada, yada, yada. The results of such advertising are still up in the air, but when applied to the Internet it can be more impactful, and not necessarily in a good way.

An article published in the Journal of Advertising, December 22nd, 2007 titled Psychophysiological and Memory Effects of Negative Political Ads: Aversive, Arousing, and Well Remembered states, “Although this study further confirms that negative advertising is perceived as negative and contributes to short-term disgust with campaigns…” It goes on to state that it doesn’t suggest that negative advertising increases cynicism or citizen apathy, the quoted part is what I feel pertains directly to your Web site. That’s the part I want you to focus on because the very nature of your hosted site is one of permanence, and unlike a television advertisement which is usually followed up directly with another spot to sell you something, or a feel-good movie/television show losing its impact, your site will remain in front of the viewer for an undeterminable amount of time (especially if you’ve done your job right). If you’re presenting negativity, the perception for your site is more likely to be negative.

Does this mean not to point out when someone is doing something wrong, or treating someone in an ill manner? No, but make sure you aren’t muddy when all is said and done.

All in all, hooking the big fish is only the first step. After that you’ve got to reel it in, land it, and then fry it up and eat it. You’ve got all the potential in the world of becoming the greatest Web fisherman we’ve ever seen, but it will take some dedication and hard work to accomplish this. I’ve no doubt you’re up to it though.

Thanks for the chat. Get started building that trust by using a reliable host. Check out my ranked list of top ten hosting companies here!