Building Trust on your Web Site
I wrote a blog post about building trust online. Trust makes business work. People do business with people they trust. Please read the post and leave comments here or on the post itself. Let me know how you build trust on your web site or online store.
Thanks Paul Wilson for this link so you can make any page of your site accept comments. That means you can add user-generated content. People often trust other consumers more than they trust a company.
4 Responses to “Building Trust on your Web Site”
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August 6th, 2007 at 8:08 pm
Trustworthiness is probably the single important aspect of a web site.
If you can fake that; then you’ve got it made.
Personally, I would rather be trustiworthy, than simply appear to be trustworthy; So I don’t do anything specifically to build trust.
Come to think of it. My personal experience is that people make better decisions when they approach the decision with skepticism. Since I want people to make the best possible decision, I actively encourage skepticism.
August 6th, 2007 at 8:43 pm
Kevin,
Thanks for your comment. If you don’t do anything to build trust in an online store then you will probably lose customers. When you go to a site for the first time that doesn’t have a name you recognize you look for things to see if the store is legit. You look for things like a privacy policy, contact information, and other things. As I said, it’s not like a regular store. Anyone can put up an online store.
Probably one of the best ways to build trust with people and search engines is to be qualified (such as knowing your products well or having credentials) and give unique information. That can’t be faked.
Janet
August 6th, 2007 at 8:47 pm
Janet this is a great reminder. How funny is it that I just did a post on trust today? http://www.97thfloor.com/blog/understanding-link-authority-and-trust/
Keep up the posting! I am loving it!
August 6th, 2007 at 9:02 pm
Mat,
Your post is a great addition to what I’m saying. I didn’t even talk about that aspect of trust – the community you’re associated with. Getting links from sites that are trusted and that related to what your site is about is another excellent way to build trust. Your credibility soars when you are linked to someone else with established credibility.
You could write (and probably have) pages about that subject. I highly trust your linkbuilding abilities.
Janet