13 tips to get your Conversion and Credibility Rocking and Rolling.
It can be hard to determine a quality company from a bunch of yahoos on the web. But as online shopping and vendor selection as evolved, so has the online consumer. Online consumers are smarter today, and look for more signals of quality, than they did a few years ago. In this post we look at important ways to bring credibility to your website, set the user at ease, develop trust and ultimately increase conversions.
1. Show Media Mentions
Never underestimate the value of PR. It can do wonders to grow your businesses credibility. If you have been featured in industry publications or in the news, make sure you represent that on your website. This will impress consumers and result in better conversions.
2. Show Picture of People at the Company
People like to see the faces behind the company. They want to know who they are dealing with and they also want to make sure they are not on a website that is a scam. Showing pictures of real people, not stock images, lets people know they are dealing with a real company with real people behind it.
Ignite Visibility
3. Provide Testimonials from Real People with Pictures
A user wants to know that your company can do a good job for them. One of the best ways to set them at ease is to show recent testimonials. The best way to do this is to show a real testimonial provided by a real person, which can be verified. Add a photo of the persons face next to the testimonial helps with the credibility factor.
These guys just straight rock!
4. Show Case Studies
If you are a service provider, your customers will want to see case studies. A case study will let them know that you have done the job before and pulled it off. Case studies can really go a long way in the sales process and in increasing conversions to your website.
Case Study SEO and Social Media
5. Get Positive Reviews
Perhaps now more than even before consumers are verifying the credibility of a business by looking at their online reviews. Sites like Yelp, Google Places (Plus) and Facebook are critical. If you have good reviews there, it will do a great deal to help conversions. However, if you have bad reviews on these sites, and anything on sites like Rip off Report, you can expect to lose customers over and over.
6. Show Key Clients
Not all companies like to show their clients. But if you can pull a few of your top clients out of the list it will set consumers at ease. If you are an ecommerce site, you can use this same concept by showing key customers. Whether these are models, athletes or celebrities, your users will appreciate it.
7. Security Logos
Recently incidents like the Heart Bleed bug have made online security all the more important. Even if you are not an ecommerce website, users will need to feel safe to fill out your lead form. Make sure to have security logos, privacy policies and all the other basic items users need to feel safe.
8. Blog and Active Social Media Presence
A blog and active social media presence can do wonders to increase conversions. They show the website is active and the business is open, they allow you to project a positive voice to your customers, they allow you to show that your business has fans and then even create a marketing medium to promote your business over time. Think about it this way, say you are shopping for jewelry for your wife. One ecommerce site has 10 Facebook fans and the other has 500,000, how does that make you feel? Does one feel more credible than the other? Or say you are looking to hire a consultant. One has 8,000 views on the latest YouTube video and the other has 100. These things can drive user decision making.
9. Have a Great Design that is Mobile Ready
You need to have a beautiful website. People should land on your site, feel comfortable, like the design and want to stay. If you website is cluttered, unattractive and overwhelming they will bounce and you will lose that customer. One top of this, your website needs to work on all forms of technology. If your website is useless on a mobile phone, you are missing out on 20% to 60% of your customer base, depending on the industry and your marketing methods. Make sure you invest in a website that people like and can use.
10. Update your Pages and Banners Often
Like any store or business, decorations and messaging can go stale. If you have a banner up on your websites how page from 2008 it is probably time to update it. In addition, if you wrote your website copy in 2008, that is no-doubt old. Website copy should be updated every 1 to 3 months. Also, each time you update it make sure to leave a date at the bottom of the page so that users know when the last edits were made.
11. List your Upcoming Events
Have an offline presence? A website visitor will love to hear about it. Make sure to list events on your website. It will help with credibility and conversions.
12. Have a Webinar Sign Up Options
Webinars and online events can attract customers and establish your authority in an industry. Furthermore, by listing them on your website it shows that the site is alive, credible and can attract additional conversions.
13. Authorship and Publisher
Google now allows you to hook up a Google + author profile to your website. They also allow you to connect a Google + page to your website. Both of these integrations improve your brand presence in Google and can bring credibility to your site.
Final Thoughts on Credibility Online
There is certainly a lot of work that can be done on and off your website to increase conversions and improve credibility.We could mention things like getting ranked for large keywords, mentions in social by thought leaders, place ads around the net, etc. These 13 ideas are a great place to start.
Did we miss an important point? Please comment below!
