Who Knows Anything? The blog of Chip Gallent. eBusinessman.

Does Your Website Convey Your Credibility?

Let's face it - we're all trying to build, improve and maintain our credibility. We must really know our business in order to prove our worth to our clients, prospects and peers. In fact, they use our websites to see if we are backing up our assertions.

Stanford University recently researched this very issue and discovered some remarkable findings. The charts below highlight some of these facts:

Email marketing is a fantastic way to begin building your credibility. As mentioned above, the factors that contribute most to building your credibility include offering comprehensive information that cites sources, references and credentials. Email provides the perfect platform to engage your user with these techniques.

10 guidelines for Building the Credibility of a Website

1. Make it easy to verify the accuracy of the information on your site.
2. Show that there's a real organization behind your site.
3. Highlight the expertise in your organization and in the content and services you provide.
4. Show that honest and trustworthy people stand behind your site.
5. Make it easy to contact you.
6. Design your site so it looks professional (or is appropriate for your purpose).
7. Make your site easy to use -- and useful.
8. Update your site's content often (at least show it's been reviewed recently).
9. Use restraint with any promotional content (e.g., ads, offers).
10. Avoid errors of all types, no matter how small they seem.

    Source: WebCredibility.org