Selling online is becoming increasingly competitive, which can make it difficult for site owners who want their brand to stand out, attract attention, engage visitors and, ultimately, convert to sales. One thing that new site visitors will quickly seek out is a sense of trust, safety and reliability in your website.
With selling online on the rise, so unfortunately is bogus websites, scams, or simply unreliable websites with poor customer service. Visitors to a site they are unfamiliar with will quickly endeavour to scope it out and make sure it’s genuine, reliable and trustworthy.
There are numerous ways you can build trust with new visitors to your site, let’s look at some of the most common and effective ones you can implement.
Reviews & Testimonials
If you are a visitor to a new website you haven’t used before, one of the first things you will likely do is to seek out reviews of the site.
The site may have testimonials collected from clients and customers on the page itself, but people will also increasingly seek out reviews from a third party website review platform such as Yelp or Trustpilot. This is because such sites are vigilant about removing fake reviews, and therefore potential customers will place more trust in reviews on such platforms as they will view them as genuine and authentic.
It can be tricky when you’re starting out to collect reviews – using a service such as Trustpilot which offers automated emails to customers asking them to review their experience can help.
Social Media
Websites such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter are more important than ever for anyone who is selling online. Not only can these sites help drive traffic and increase brand awareness, they are also useful in building trust with new visitors to your site.
Visitors to a new site will often quickly scope out your social media channels to see if it has fresh content and a decent following; factors which indicate your business is proactive, dynamic, and trustworthy. It’s therefore important to spend a bit of time and effort building up a good following on social media and posting engaging content regularly.
Site Speed and Security
Things such as SSL certificates are pretty much the norm these days, so we don’t need to go into too much detail on those – suffice it to say make sure you have one! An overall high level of security will make visitors feel safe, and you’ll have a much higher chance of turning those visitors into customers.
Websites with low page load speeds have a much higher bounce rate – amongst other factors such as impatience, visitors may also lose trust in a site if it feels like it isn’t loading quickly and performing well – these can detract from the feeling of professionalism your website should be conveying. If a site feels unprofessional, visitors will lose trust quickly.
Site Design and Content
Building on the last point, your website must have a fresh, modern design with absolutely no spelling or grammatical errors anywhere. A website which has an outdated design with typos comes across as amateurish, and will quickly drive visitors into the arms of your competitors.
Keep your site design fresh and sleek, with professional proof-read copy – this will indicate to visitors that your site is reliable, professional, and trustworthy.
SaferShops Verification
Finally, another simple and cost effective way of building trust with new visitors, is our very own SaferShops membership. SaferShops is an independent membership for online shops and e-commerce websites. It’s designed to help maintain service standards, inspire confidence in first-time visitors, and benefits everyone involved in a transaction.
Becoming a SaferShops member indicates to shoppers and potential customers that your business values customer security and privacy, and strives to provide a great and secure experience when buying.
