Legitimize Your Online Presence: Practical Tips

Eric Sopp — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 19:12:03 +0000

As a small business owner, you understand the importance of having a website. Your website is ground zero for almost all communication to prospect clients and buyers. You have a wonderful product, or service, but your brand is unfamiliar. You may be loosing business to prospect uncertainly, in other words, your website’s visitors are unsure about the legitimacy of your brand.

This blog post discusses the possible causes of prospect uncertainty, and some practical tips to help reduce the uneasiness felt by your website’s visitors.

Possible Causes

Prospect uncertainty can be due to several reasons, all of which you have probably felt yourself while browsing for products and services online. A prospect could feel uncertain because they have never heard of your business before, and prefer to conduct business in person. Uncertainly could also stem from commonly heard stories of being ripped off online and last night’s news report on cyber-crime. In short, there are many reasons why your visitors are weary about conducting business through the internet.

Build Trust in Your Online Presence

As a business owner that either sells products and services online, or simply has an online presence, you need to take actions in order to relieve these stresses on your website’s visitors. Here are some practical ideas that can put in place relatively easily:

Join your local Chamber of Commerce

Joining your local chamber has many benefits (business counseling for example), but in this case it gives you the opportunity to tell your visitors that you exist in a physical location.

Join the Better Business Bureau

Similar to joining your local chamber, joining the Better Business Bureau builds trust with your site’s visitors. The BBB also offers online membership validation to your members, through programs like Click-to-Check (found in your local BBB website) and TrustLink.

Purchase an SSL Certificate

Whether your website is ecommerce or not, an SSL certificate can help relieve fears of security with your visitors. For example, VeriSign Secured Seal offers off-site security verification of your business and website.

Join Domain and Business Verification Services

Besides the VeriSign Secured Seal program, other services are available. TRUSTe and GoDaddy Certified Domain Services provide such services. Participating in these services are very effective, as a visitor can visually verify your business with another trusted company.

Business Contact Information in your Website’s Header

To build trust, you must be forward with how you can be contacted – by phone. Simply offering a contact form is not enough. In addition, if your business has a physical location (brick and mortar), your address should be easily accessible too. The key here is to be forward about how you can be contacted. By putting your contact information (phone, email, livehelp chat, and/or address) on every page of your website, you will build loads of confidence with your website’s visitors.

Good Design and Layout

A professionally designed website that is well laid out will not only keep your visitors less distracted and more focused on your content, but it will also build visitor confidence in your business. A website that is poorly planned and developed will only send your visitors away in frustration and dismay in your business.

Offer Frequently Updated Content

Run a blog about your business and focus on topics that your business excels in. This will show potential customers that you are an industry leader, and someone they can trust their money with.

These were just some of the ways you can inflict trust in you brand with your website’s visitors. The key is to be open and honest with your visitors, and make information that verifies the legitimacy of your business easy to find and understand.

If you require professional assistance with your web strategy and presence, please feel free to contact Insidedesign Web at 888-812-4727.

Web Strategy Blog » Web Design