First lets talk about what trust is — according to Wikipedia’s dictionary - Trust is “Confidence in or reliance on some person or quality.” As you already know trust is so much more.  You may have read that not surprisingly a lot of visitors use emotion to make their decision for whether or not to make their purchase.  And trust is one of those emotions.

But how do you go about building trust online? There are many different ways but lets cover some of the easiest tips that you can use to increase trust in your website.

1) Emblems, Symbols, Membership:
Do you or your company belong to any organizations such as BBB, WBEA or any other recognized organizations.  Each industry tends to have their own type of organizations and memberships that you may belong too.  If you belong to any of those then find out if you can show their emblem, logo, image on your website.

EX: One of the websites that we finished earlier this year was www.OntarioExteriors.com.  If you visit their website and scroll down you’ll notice they belong to various organizations such as NRCA, BBB, Rochester Top 100 and several others.

2) Time: If your company has been around 10 or 20 years or more then make sure you include this information on your website.

3) Your Story: This could mean the story of how the company started or why your company does what it does.  Often when I visit the about us page I’ll see the usual we do this and this, instead write something in your own words and leave all of the sales talk for another page.  You can include a story about your experience, your staff, your dedication, your promise, your goals.  It has to be something genuine.

Remember if you don’t tell your story then no one else will.

4) Testimonials - If you received thank you letters (not unlike the one I received above), testimonials, thank you emails — ask your customers if you have their permission to post it on your website.

Try not to include vague information such as “I really liked your product” instead if possible try to get more exact such as “The site is working great. We’ve had a good response to our advertising. A lot of people have visited the site and a lot more have called.” and so on. Include details but keep in mind to not give away the private information.

Your website is a representation of your company and trust is very important before anyone will consider calling you for a quote, filling out a contact form, or buying one of your products online.

Last but not the least keep in mind that the overall design does impact how visitors will view the website.  If you have broken links, old images, complex navigation, bad or outdate design and your forms ask too many questions then all the visitor has to do is press the back button to exit the website.