Convincing a customer to make a purchase through your website often comes down to trust. Your customer wants to put their faith in you, your business and your product before making a purchase.

In addition to trusting in the traditional sales relationship, cyber security is a hot button issue these days and consumers are being more cautious with their online activities, requiring you to establish a completely different type of reliability. Consumers want to know that their data will be safe and that when they enter sensitive information on your website, whether it’s their email address, home address or credit card information, that that information will remain in your possession alone.

You already know that internet users will decide whether to stay on your site in a matter of seconds. The online business world is very much a case of judging a book by its cover. So your first touchpoint for establishing trust is the look and feel of your website. This can also take the form of a number of security certificates and review accreditations you earn by applying security measures to your site.

Here are a few suggestions for making your website more trustworthy for your customers.

Avoid spam-like branding

Your brand image is the impression your business gives to your audience through its look and feel. Establishing a clear and professional brand image is a good starting point for building trust with your customer base. If your branding looks amateurish or spam-like, people won’t want to stay on your site, let alone make a purchase. There are a number of templates and tools that make it easy for anyone to build a clean and professional website.

A good place to start is with your business name and domain name. These should reflect the professional nature of your business and not sound like a line from an infomercial.

Provide contact information

This may seem like an obvious suggestion, but listing one, if not multiple, ways to contact your business helps establish credibility with your customers. If they feel that they will be able to easily contact you for questions or should a problem arise, they are more likely to use your services.

Using a chat feature on your website can be the best way to build trust with visitors to your website as it gives them a direct line of communication with you.

Certificates and Accreditations

Badges that prove you have earned the trust of others are a very clear way of showing the credibility of your services. Most online business directories have some sort of badge system where you earn credibility based on reviews. You can then display these badges on your website.

Security certificates can also be essential for building trust. If you go through the trouble of getting a security certificate, such as an SSL certification, you should definitely let your customers know so they know that their transactions with you will be safe.

In order to be successful in the world of online business, you need to make sure that your customers feel like they can trust you. Before they can test your trust through a purchase, your customers need to first feel like they can trust you. This is why it is important to both create a trustworthy look and feel on your website, in addition to taking actual measures of ensuring security. For expert assistance with your web hosting needs, contact the professionals at Host Geek today!