Due to the overwhelming presence of scam artists on the Internet, a great majority of users are now reluctant to share their personal information online. This has a great effect on your business especially if you are running an affiliate site or a shopping site. As your customers have to pay for their purchases, they need to be assured that their billing details are safe and that their credit card numbers are not shared with third party sites. By building online credibility, your visitors will learn to trust your site and feel safe when making business transactions with you.
Invest in a Good Domain Name
A good domain name is important as this will show your site visitors how serious you are with your business. A funny or eye-catching domain may indeed get people’s attention, but they might not take your site seriously. And this can hurt your business, especially if you’re selling something.
In the same context, it is also inadvisable to use free blogs or set up domain names in free hosting sites. Domain names that are branded or linked to free hosting sites also have that cheap impression, and a majority of site visitors will find this a turn-off. They would rather spend their time (and their money) on more trustworthy and authoritative sites.
Proper Contact Information
Your contact information should include your real postal address as this will make your site look legitimate. Your readers and site visitors should therefore be able to contact you via your e-mail and your local business address.
Make a Professional Looking About Page
Your site’s About Page should contain either your personal biography or your professional biography. This will depend on your site’s overall theme and subject. If it’s a personal blog, then you can put up a personal biography to let your readers know where you’re coming from. It will instill a sense of personal relationship with your site visitors and they will feel close to you in some way.
For a business site, however, it would be wise to compose a professional-looking About Page.
Your company’s objective or mission statement should be clearly stated so that your potential customers can start building up their trust in you. You can also include your contact details here to let your clients know that you are always available for communication.
In both scenarios (personal and professional), it would be good if you could include a photo. Letting people see you is like saying, “This is the real me; you can trust me.”
Create a Privacy Statement
Having a Privacy Statement Page is also very important as it will assure your site visitors that their personal details are not compromised. You can also include a statement that limits your site from being accountable for the actions of other sites that you may be linking to. And if you have a mailing list or a forum board, make sure that your guests know that this can be viewed by the general public so that all the necessary precautions can be taken.
