So, you’re here to see ‘how to make my site trustworthy‘? Well, you’re in the right place.
Trust is more important than ever in branding and web design.
Consumers are blasted with thousands of options when it comes to where they spend their time and money.
Whilst empowering, this choice and freedom has resulted in customers becoming sceptical. They’re not afraid to ask questions before handing over their hard-earned cash. This can also lead to customers just leaving your website straight away.
And, quite rightly so – after countless examples of companies misusing customer trust over the past few decades.
The bottom line is, we support companies who we believe to be trustworthy.
Brand trust can be assessed in a number of different ways.
As the first point of contact for many potential customers, your website is a core component of establishing this trust.
Ensuring that you understand your customer and establish trust within the first few moments of them visiting your site. This is a powerful factor when they come to make their next move. Whether this is enquiring about a service, or making a purchase.
Key findings from “How Do People Evaluate a Web Site’s Credibility?” suggest that:
“Nearly half of all consumers (or 46.1%) in the study assessed the credibility of sites based in part on the appeal of the overall visual design of a site, including layout, typography, font size and color schemes.”
Let’s put it another way. If your website is poorly designed and doesn’t function correctly, the business has not invested time, money or consideration into creating the website. They aren’t committed to your customer experience.
Here’s how you can build trust through web design and answer the question of how to make my site trustworthy:
Trustworthy colours and typography.
As we’ve mentioned on this blog before, there are certain colours that scream trustworthy, reliable and professional.
Blue is one of these colours. Used by many different brands, including Facebook, the NHS and PayPal, it’s a safe shade to use if you want to maintain a dependable, corporate image.
However, don’t get too hung up on this. It’s becoming more and more acceptable for brands to use more vibrant, engaging colours. In fact, showing that you can be different, yet still professional, can give you a real edge.
It’s similar for fonts.
A standard rule is that serifs (Times New Roman, Garamond) are seen as ‘serious‘, but rounded san serifs (Futura, Proxima Nova and Avenir) are becoming a popular choice to reflect that a business is ‘friendly’, ‘modern’ and ‘approachable’.
What we will say is that, whatever fonts you go with, ensure your choice is consistent throughout your whole site.
Which brings us onto our next point…
Consistency.
Both the interface design and functionality of your website need to be consistent throughout.
A user needs to be able to navigate your site and access the information with ease.
Inconsistent and poor design leads to users not fully trusting your product.
Help them effortlessly move through your site with familiar navigation tools and clear, consistent design.
Good performance.
A website that doesn’t work well breeds suspicion, especially if you’re expecting people to buy from you directly through the site.
Would you want to enter sensitive information like your bank card number to into a website that lags, freezes and generally doesn’t respond well?
Solid security.
All websites need to be secure, especially if you have an eCommerce site where people purchase goods through the website.
SSL – or security certificates – are very important as when customers enter their data, they need to feel assured that their credentials aren’t going to be stolen.
If your website is secure, your browser will show a little green padlock and your URL will begin with HTTPS.
If you’re asking yourself the question ‘how to make my site trustworthy’ and would like some more information or help with your website, please get in touch with a member of our team today.