Trust is everything in the world of business. When your prospects and customers trust you, they are much more likely to buy from you.
So how can you inspire trust through your WordPress site?
There are certain important trust signals that play a key role in every user’s experience when visiting a website. These signals act like subliminal cues that have the power to encourage or discourage visitors from interacting with your company and making a purchase. Without including these aspects on your website, you risk simple opportunities for greater conversions and revenue generation.
Here are 5 very easy ways to optimise your WordPress website to inspire trust:
1. Social profiles
Having a social media presence reassures people that your company is still active and allows them to see how you interact with customers. Your social profiles should be displayed clearly on your site, and preferably on every page. An easy way of doing this is to embed them into the header or footer of your website so that they’re displayed automatically when you add new pages.
Of course, there’s no use in linking up your profiles if they’re not active and relevant to your brand so make sure you post frequently so that the audience can engage with your company and understand its personality.
As more and more people use social media to interact with friends and share content, this is the environment to connect with people. By being active and engaging across social media, you are more likely to instill trust in your brand and your key messaging.
2. Contact information
Another trust signal that your website should follow is to display your full contact details, including an email address, telephone number and street address. This should be easy to locate within your website and preferably on the homepage as well as under a separate contact heading.
Including your operating hours will also help customers to know the best time to contact you and when to expect a response to enquiries. This helps reinforce transparency leading to greater levels of trust.
3. Site navigation
Your site structure should be easy to navigate and designed with the user in mind. Websites that feel cluttered and complicated lack professionalism and this may leave people feeling wary about doing business with you. Naturally, there is a close correlation between trust and user experience which is worth maximising.
A seamless user experience will create a clear indication of what your company offers and an indication of your brand’s personality and values. Users are much more likely to convert if they understand your site structure and find the sign up process intuitive and simplistic.
4. Reviews
If you allow customers to leave reviews either directly on your website or through your social media channels, you are showing that their opinions matter and that you aren’t afraid to leave yourself open to potential criticism.
If you come across as though you’ve got nothing to hide, you’ll find more people are willing to put their faith into your business. The trust from reviews is strengthened by adding reviewers’ identities which confirms the legitimacy of each review.
5. Security
Security is a top priority when it comes to your online presence. A secure website not only improves trust, but it is the very minimum you can offer to your visitors. If you host any kind of sensitive data, then setting up a secure HTTPS login is a necessary precaution you should take. This is particularly important if your site requires form submissions to be completed or enables card transactions.
Enforcing HTTPS on your site guarantees no information passed between the server and your customer can be intercepted or stolen and is a factor customers look for when choosing who to pass their sensitive data to.
By investing time in your website’s trust signals, you will be rewarded with a higher conversion rate and customers who love and engage with your brand. Most of the items mentioned in this list can be implemented yourself, however if you’d prefer to leave it to the professionals, why not get in touch with WP Tech Support?
We understand the importance of customer trust and can help you to make improvements to the performance and security of your WordPress website. View our monthly payment plans to find the one best suited to your circumstances.