Website Usability

Published date: June 04, 2007

How to Improve Website Credibility

43 Steps to achieve site credibility

Adriana Iordan, Web Marketing Manager, Avangate B.V.

Website Usability, Published date: June 04, 2007

Web credibility has become a very important topic today. The fact that you have a site should
not make you rest on your laurels. In these times, where facts are certainly more important than
promises; if you have an online business, one of the most important matters that you should give
due consideration is online credibility: you have to persuade web visitors that there is truly
something worth wild behind a good-looking, usable website: you have to convince the visitors
that the image you try to promote is trustful and that you intend to keep your promises
advertised on the internet.

Generally speaking, credibility results from evaluating multiple dimensions simultaneously; most
of researchers identify "trustworthiness" and "expertise" as the two main components of
credibility. At the same time, it's important to differentiate between trust, which is related more
to "dependability" and credibility, which is connected to the idea of "believability".

Gaining online credibility is indeed a difficult task, but necessary in order to have a successful
online business. Researches conducted among common web users proved much reticence in
buying or doing business on the internet (the Stanford-Makovsky University demonstrated in 2002
on a sample of 1481 people that only 52, 8% believe online information to be credible).

Why is credibility important?

Credibility is essential in order to make people: register, click on your ads, download software,
resort to your services and so on. Therefore, website credibility can be identified to some extent
with the idea of a successful business. Credibility is vital in order to make users return to your
page.

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On the other hand, when talking about this matter, it's worth mentioning that credibility is quite a
general term comprising many factors like: usability, accessibility, security, search engine ranking
etc.

Very few people take credibility for a specialized issue to deal with; they concentrate their
attention rather on the above mentioned factors, most of the time resulting in a failure to
complete all the requirements for a credible website.

43 steps to a credible website

Here are some of the most common methods employed by web users in order to make their site
more believable; most of them are based on the Stanford University research. What you should
notice is the fact that these steps will not necessarily improve your sales, but will aid you in
creating a respectful image in eyes of the website visitors.

1. Publish photos of real people (the team you are working with) on your website!

This action has two beneficial implications on your business: on the one side, the team you are
working with will have a growing self-respect, and on the other side, visitors will think higher of
your site. Consequently, the prospect of new clients will also be higher.

2. Give your contact details online!

Be sure to introduce in a different section of your website the physical address of your company
and also the telephone number; the existence of a real organization (or at least the impression)
behind a website is essential.

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3. Provide the clients with quick, flexible answers to their needs.

Every client needs to be shown respect and care. Make sure you provide them with individual,
flexible treatments (auto responders are sometimes annoying). Think there wouldn't be any
business, any financial gain on your part but for the clients. In order to have better results in your
business, it is highly advisable to be very attentive and respond promptly to their needs.

4. Make your site useful to visitors!

If you have a business and if you have a new website, it can be quite difficult to get customers.
A tip that you could consider is the fact that websites have to provide visitors with information
they need. So, try not only to promote the product or services you offer, but also give helpful
hints on various matters (for instance having a section of articles or of interviews might be a
good point to start).

5. Publish information that can be easily verified

Indicating resources or references leading to trustful websites on your web page is certain to
persuade clients of your "good intentions" and your position on the market; not only will you
prove your "synthetic", and analytical sense, but you will also show interest for placing
information in contexts.

6. Update your site on a regular basis

New information always attracts new visitors. Sometimes, adding some indicators (icons, special
signs) with the inscription "new" can be a good idea for drawing attention.

7. Design your site in a professional (first and foremost) and aesthetical (second) way

A good website layout is always indicative of a good structural organization. The benefits that
are worth considering are: site usability and web credibility. Notice that a beautiful graphic

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design will not save a poorly functioning site.

8. Make sure to put your contact details at hand

Sometimes, placing a link with you contact details on top of your website might provide an
extra of credibility; web users will spot this information easier.

9. Promote your and other products cautiously!

Most of the time, over usage of ads and promoting materials are not hints of a trustful, reliable
website. Moreover, make sure web users are able to differentiate between ads and content!

10. Errors of all types must be avoided

Lack of errors is a sign of trustfulness; researches showed that spelling errors on web sites have a
devastating effect on business in general.

11. Convince satisfied customer to give you a testimonial

Posting a favorable citation of one of your satisfied customers on your site implies a huge benefit
as far as credibility is concerned. To increase the credibility add the full name, website and
company of the client, their picture if possible or even better, a video material.

12. Paraphrase brilliant minds

It is not very important to quote historical personalities; sometimes paraphrasing someone in

your field of activity might be even more useful in creating a credible image.

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13. Invite guests on your site

Having a personality invited to write for your website might be an intelligent step to follow; the
process is similar to a transfer of authority - the trust and the notoriety that that certain person
has, is given up to you.

14. Answer as many emails as you can

As mentioned before, this action is an indicative of your preoccupation for people. Conversely,
failure not to do so might result in a loss of the entire image you have so much fought for,
showing infatuation and ignorance.

15. Demonstrate your philanthropy

Charity is the most important aspect that people in general appreciate. If you take into
account this problem, more people will get to know you; more will be eager to get in touch with
you. Still, making too much fuss about your good deeds is not advisable due again to the
prospect that people might regard you as conceited.

16. Ensure you add some terms and conditions on your website!

In this respect, almost always the help of a solicitor is required. Broadly speaking, terms and
conditions should tackle aspects like:

¾ who is the rightful owner of the material promoted

¾ description of services
¾ the fact that the rightful owner is entitled to change the content published on the site
¾ to whom the site/ program/ service is destined
¾ privacy and protection of personal information
¾ acceptance of terms
¾ ownership of trade marks (different from a company to the other)

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Terms and conditions should account for the services provided.

17. Make your contact email address visible

A contact email address such as "contact@xyz.com" is most of the times highly recommended
in building up trust because it makes the company "xyz" appear as a sole entity.

18. Submit your site to trustful websites!

A good promotion policy is always constructive; people will certainly think higher of your website
provided that it is linked or recommended by a website that they already know and they
regard it as a trustful source.

19. Link external materials and sources.

Do not use information that you do not own; linking external sites will both prevent the risk of
legal action and get you more traffic.

20. Promote your site in a newspaper or media support!

The effect is absolutely evident: notoriety also gets you credibility

21."Rephrase" your web site URL if needed!

Name your site after your company or even better: make a different site for every product or
service you have.

22. Change your domain name if necessary

Websites with extensions such as ".com", ".org" or ".eu" are sure to be more effective in gaining
more visitors.

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23. Respect your customers

A satisfied client is the key to more clients; the most important asset in this consists of your
positive growing popularity.

24. Make your website's design appropriate for the products/services you are trying to promote!

The style of a web site should be in accordance with the product that you are trying to
advertise; this discrepancy should be avoided at all costs because it is certain to lower sales.

25. Make your web pages printer-friendly

Make your site easy to print; finally, it is recommended that you put an icon at the top of the
page indicating this aspect.

26. Provide your clients with live-chat!

An online discussion with someone who has a question, is again a factor which improves
credibility.

27. Improve your search engine status!

This is maybe the hardest step that you have to deal with in building credibility; a high rank in
search engines is quite hard to achieve due to a long and "tiring" process, which involves most
of the aspects here mentioned.

28. Do not "oblige" web users to login unless necessary!

Make most of your site available to all visitors. The explanation is based on the researches which
proved that sites that required logging in are not very popular (usually because of the long time
taken to register for an account)

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29. Make sure the content of your web site is easy to download!

Do not put information on your website that takes a lot of space; download speed is of utmost
importance.

30. Links in your site must be credible.

Credibility goes like in circle: you are either linked by trustful sites or you are the one to link other
sites; both ways are necessary but not sufficient.

31 Make your site usable and easy to navigate

Site usability is very important with a view to make users come back again. Ease of finding
information and also good site structure make users believe more in you.

32. Post some information about the author of the site

Mentioning the biography of the site's creator might help you in gaining credibility because the
visitors might realize the experience and the legitimacy with which he created the site.

33. Place a search engine on your site.

This will certainly improve the site's accessibility; the web users will find easier the information they
need and will come back later again.

34. Rewrite your URLs if necessary

There are two reasons for you to rewrite your URLs. One of them is related to Search Engine
Optimization; search engines are much more at ease with URLs that do not have long query
strings. Secondly, the search engines can better distinguish folder names and can establish real
links to keywords.

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35."Muliply" your languages!

Make your site available in different languages in order to have more traffic.

36. Replace broken links!

A broken link, as well as spelling errors is a sign of negligence on part of the company behind
the webpage.

38. Place ratings and reviews on your website

This could be a good opportunity for your visitors to give you a mark. Be careful: if remarks are
rather negative, the effect will reduce your traffic.

39. Display any awards you won!

Awards are a kind of recognition of your merits which are certain to increase your notoriety.

40. Send clients emails with the transactions they made!

Users will trust this way your site more; that email will play to some extent the role of a receipt.

41. Be careful with paid subscriptions.

Researches proved that paid access to websites lead in most cases to a loss of credibility.

42. Describe your products thoroughly

Giving your clients all the information they need leads to bigger sales. Create a Frequently
Asked Questions (FAQ) page, in case any additional information is needed. Also make sure you
provide an efficient answer to client problems.

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43. Don't forget about "sense of humor"!

Even if we talk about the most serious website, one cannot forget about this issue; nevertheless,
the extent to which this can be used stands for another problem.

Conclusions

All in all, like many aspects of our society, credibility is becoming increasingly important for
computer products. In the not-too distant past, computers were seen by the general public as
virtually infallible. Today, the assumption that computers are credible seems to be fading away.

At the same time, keep in mind that credibility is the result of a time-consuming process, which
can be destroyed in the blink of an eye; once lost, credibility is quite hard to be achieved
again.

The bottom line is that some of the keys of a successful business are: quality of the
products/services provided and the "capacity" to keep your word, which might make the
difference between you and your competitors.

***

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Copyright © 2007 www.avangate.com all rights reserved.

This article was written by a Web Marketing Manager at Avangate B.V. The author has in depth
knowledge of internet marketing services and website analysis applied to the software industry and e-
commerce development.

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This article may be reproduced in a website, e-zine, CD-ROM, book, magazine, etc. so long as the above
information is included in full, including the link back to this website. Please e-mail at
articles@avangate.com, before using the article.

***
About Avangate B.V.
Avangate B.V. provides solutions for electronic software distribution and reseller management, assisting
software companies worldwide in successfully selling their products online and at the same time efficiently
managing a distribution network.
The company’s offer includes an eCommerce platform incorporating an easy to use and secure online
payment system plus software marketing services and additional marketing and sales tools such as an
affiliate network, automated cross selling options, software promotion management, real time reporting,
24/7 shopper support, and the myAvangate reseller management program specifically designed for
software sales.
More information can be found on the corporate website, at www.avangate.com

Avangate B.V.
Van Heuven Goedhartlaan 937, 1181 LD Amstelveen, The Netherlands
Tel: +31 208908080 Fax: +31 202031309
Email: info@avangate.com Web: www.avangate.com

.member of GECAD Group, delivering innovative IT solutions Worldwide since 1992

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