- Today, we're talking about 7 ways to build a website
that customers trust here on "The Journey."
- So people form an impression about a website
that they go to in about 50 milliseconds.
So you have that split-second decision
to gain someone's trust.
You know, you may be asking for their credit card here
in a little bit, right?
So you have to gain their trust,
and there are a lotta things,
especially when I'm online shopping that I look out for,
and if not, I'm just gonna press the back button,
and go somewhere else.
- Exactly, which brings us the first way
to build that trusted site is to make sure
your site looks professional.
I know this goes without saying,
but there are plenty of sites that look
either dated, or just awful, to be blunt.
Having a website that looks professional
is that millisecond way, like we may not, like perceive
what we're looking at, but subliminally,
or like, oh, this website looks awful.
It looks like it's come straight out the early 2000s,
like they haven't really touched their website in forever.
They don't care about their website.
They may not care about me,
so that professional website is key .
Now you don't have to be a professional web designer
to do so, yes, it does help to hire someone
to elevate your brand and elevate your presence,
but most website builders out there today
comes with templates to help you really elevate that.
So if you haven't touched your website in,
say three years, it might be time
to give it that renovation that it needs.
- Absolutely, and trends change really fast.
So you always wanna - Absolutely.
- Make sure that your staying up to date with the trends.
So if it has been a few years, definitely wanna update that.
- And you're right and we're always, always, always
on our phones, so if your website is not optimized
for mobile, it's not gonna look professional.
People are gonna open it up and immediately bounce,
and never ever do business with your business,
or your website because they have scroll and pinch,
and it's just a pain in the you-know-what.
- The second way to build trust with your audience
is to prove that you're actually real.
So 62% of people say that they wanna actually see
a legitimate business,
and believe that there's real people
behind a website whenever they go and visit it.
- And the way that you prove that you're real
is to just add some things about you and your business.
Now you don't have to go around and post selfies
and put all of it on your business,
but what you do wanna do is add photos of your location,
add your employees, even the About page,
add a nice little headshot of you,
and really tell your story as the business owner.
- Yeah, people love to shop local and small.
- Yes. - I love whenever I go
to an About Me page on a website,
and it has all these great photos
and it tells you about the actual website
and the people behind it.
It really makes you wanna support that business.
- Yeah, the more that you can show you, the better,
'cause like, we always say people buy from people.
The ways that your audience communicates with you is huge.
People don't like talking to a robot,
like I'm sure you can recall some experiences
where you're on the phone yelling representative.
- Oh my goodness.
- Representative. - Over and over.
- Over and over, right?
Have a real and authentic way for people to contact you,
whether it's through chat or email, or a phone call,
make sure it's an actual person picking up.
We want someone that we can actually speak to,
and not yell at a robot for half an hour,
then hang up and never talk to again.
- Yeah, if you're having a problem,
or you know, shipping issues,
you wanna talk to a real person, you're already upset.
The last thing you need to be doin'
is yelling into your phone,
and only connecting with a robot.
- Another way you can build trust
is show off who your big clients are.
People like to know that you're an established business,
and you're well-known.
It just makes people feel safe
that you're not just gonna take their money and run.
So the more that you can show
the people you've worked with, especially larger companies,
I know with like, graphic design and web designers,
they love to have just their companies
that they've worked with right on their homepage.
Same thing with like, real estate sites,
or commercial development.
They'll throw their property on it.
You were telling me about another one
that basically had that on there, and even then-some.
- Yeah, so for example, on this website,
they're a commercial development company,
and so they did a really good job of showing off
all of the different companies
and projects that they've worked on,
but then they also take it, you know, to the next step,
and they show off the great press
that they've received as well.
So this is really important 'cause it's not just you
telling us that you have a great business.
Now it's coming from the mouths of other people,
and that really carries a lot of weight.
- Yeah, and adding on to press,
like press is really great to do that, but we also wanna see
real, authentic people, and what they have to say
about your business, so adding that social proof
whether it's reviews from like, Google,
or Yelp, or just some that they've given you directly.
Add that directly on your website,
so people will know that hey,
other people that are doing business with you
and they have great things to say.
- Yeah, 80% of consumers nowadays
are checking online reviews before ever making
any type of purchasing decision.
So it's really important to people
to hear those reviews, and don't be afraid
to actually still include those bad reviews
'cause most people actually trust reviews more
if they see a couple of those bad reviews sprinkled in.
It's okay, people understand that things happen.
So yeah, absolutely, include those reviews,
and show that you're a real business with real customers.
- Yeah, and I love that, and with those bad reviews too,
you wanna make sure you're responding to them
and show people how you're responding to them,
to let them know that hey, when things go bad,
or things go wrong, 'cause it's inevitable,
something's going to happen,
you're there to respond, and make things right,
that's what's super important about it.
- That's huge, 'cause you wanna make sure that your business
has a voice, and it's not just a one-sided story
with those reviews, and you're showing
that customer appreciation for the people
leaving those really great reviews.
Our fifth way to build that trust is to show people
that you're a safe website, so I know for me, I mean
if you're about to give someone your credit card,
and this is a complete stranger,
especially if you've never used this business before,
you have to make sure that they feel safe with that purchase
because no one wants to get hacked these days.
No one wants to, you know, have their bank account
taken over by some sketchy website.
- Yeah, the Internet is a scary place.
So there's a couple ways that you can show
your audience, your customers, that your website is safe,
and the first and probably easiest way
is to add an SSL certificate.
Now what SSL does is that credit card information,
or email, or contact, whatever gets sent to the website,
is jumbled up and encrypted, so if anyone
were to capture it in the middle of that transmission,
they don't know what it is, they can't read it.
It makes your site safe,
and it also is gonna make sure that that not secure warning
at the top of the left browser is gone because even if you,
even if you're not selling anything on your website,
you're not taking credit card, you're not taking
like, any information, people still go to that website,
see that not secure warning at the top,
they're going to bounce because it says not secure,
even though you're not asking for anything, right?
Having the SSL there is to really show
that that lock is there, and you spent a little bit
of money to make sure your customers are safe.
And then adding on that,
Site Seals are incredibly important.
In things like the Better Business Bureau,
or like, McAfee Site Seal, or like a malware scan
that your site is safe.
The more seals that you can add on your site to show people
that you're taking that extra measure
to make sure they're safe,
the better it is for you and your visitors.
- Yeah, it's crazy how that one little step
can actually make all the difference
in making your customers feel, you know,
like they actually trust you in your business.
- Yeah, and if you don't have one already,
add that SSL on your site,
and see what it does to your traffic and your conversions.
- We actually have a really great video
that we've done about having a secure website,
and you can check it out right over there.
Number six is display your return policy.
So this makes all the difference,
especially whenever you're trying out
a business the for first time.
So I know I'm much more likely
to actually go through and purchase something,
if it's, you know, I know that I can return it
possibly if I don't like it.
So making sure that you're being really transparent
with your customers, you display that return policy,
and like this website here,
you know, not only do they explain
their return policy, and exchanges,
but they also have all of their terms of service,
and so by, you know, listing all of those things,
it really makes all the difference
when making sure that your customers can trust you.
- Yeah, and I know, do you know what a Furbo is?
- No, a Furby?
- No, a Furbo, so it's like a little
video monitoring system so you can check in on your dogs
and you can feed 'em treats - Okay.
- As they go. - I know what
you're talking about now.
- So, I actually ended up buying one,
and then my girlfriend bought one the same weekend,
because we both talked about it,
and we obviously didn't communicate about buying it.
So I had to return one of 'em,
and what Furbo did, that was pretty cool,
was they actually offered to come pick it up
at my house, versus me having to go back
and either ship it through FedEx or whatever it was.
So I scheduled a delivery date, they grabbed it,
and it was good to go.
- I love when companies do that.
Like if you buy something online,
and then they already have the bag ready to go
in case you need to return something,
I am like, "Thank you so much.
"You're a rock star, awesome."
- 'Cause I am too lazy to actually go anywhere
to refund it. - Exactly.
And speaking of transparency,
that leads us to number seven.
Be upfront about your shipping costs.
I know whenever I am on a website, online shopping,
you know, you add all these items to your shopping cart,
you go, and then you're hit with an unexpected cost,
all of a sudden, I'm hitting the back button.
I never see that shopping cart again,
and actually, 56% of customers
are more more likely to actually get outta there.
They're gonna leave that cart abandoned
if they're hit with those unexpected costs like shipping.
So let 'em know up front.
- Yeah, and if you popping up those random charges,
whatever, then everyone's gonna think,
cool, what else is gonna pop up, what else is next?
What else am I gonna have to pay for with this purchase?
All right, so you just learned seven ways
to build a website that your customers trust.
Make sure you like this video,
and a comment below,
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This is "The Journey."
Thanks for watching, we'll see ya later.