How To Make A Credible Website

Back in the nascence of the internet, anonymity was a cool thing. But with the evolution of the internet, customers getting more social on the web, they are simply smarter and more skeptical.

A running glance at your website and they can come to a decision whether it’s worth exploring more.

If you’re Flipkart or MakeMyTrip, congratulations! You don’t have any credibility issues.

Most of the companies aren’t so lucky. Almost all but the biggest companies have an uphill credibility battle ahead of them every time a new visitor lands on their site.

Many web designers overlook this ‘credibility factor’ where even a simple color mismatch can turn off visitors like someone would on a blind date.

So, in this age, when every consumer has a plethora of options and can cut the axe on your website on a whim, the million-dollar question is- How do you make your website more credible?

Well, this article is not exactly the Bible of web-designing, but you can surely consider it as a handy pocketbook.

Be Accurate

Unless you are Mukesh Ambani or Ratan Tata, chances are, people simply won’t take your word for it. Let’s say you just came out watching ‘Dabbang-2? in a theatre.

A twenty-something guy comes up to you “Hey, are you interested in a new iPhone 6? I’ll sell it to you for Rs 10,000?” He pulls it out of his pocket, and it looks legit. What do you do?

A sane person, most probably, won’t buy it even though the price is amazing, and he knows it’s a good product.

Why not? Because of a lack of trust. Is it stolen? What if it breaks the next day? Why so cheap? He’ll get all these questions in his head and since he doesn’t know the guy, he’ll probably pass.

If you have citations, product reviews, testimonials, and other source materials, flaunt it. People love evidence these days. As they say – to see is to believe.

Be Transparent

Now we’re not asking you to be Arvind Kejriwal, but you need to show people that there’s a real person or group behind your business.

Where are you located?

What do you look like?

Make your address and phone number visible at all times. Provide staff bios and photos.

Show photos of your office. Show client list. This is social proof nobody wants to be the only idiot watching Ram Gopal Verma Ki Aag.

If any major news publication like The Hindu or Times of India has written about you, link to those stories.

Look Great

When it comes to visiting websites online, everybody judges a book by its cover.

If your professional website, like a Sanjay Gupta movie, copied from sources, looks like a template borrowed from thousands of free sites out there, it just screams CHEAP. Hire a professional Web Designer.

Make a website that’s not screaming with frames, videos or music auto-playing, and all those annoying pop-up ads.

All pages on your website should be visually related. While some mild variety can be fine, differences should not be so blatant that a visitor could think he’s wandered into a separate site by a simple click.

Also, when we’re talking about visual appearance, another important factor is making the site look suited to its purpose and intended audience. Yes, as William Shakespeare said- “Know thy audience”.

A site aiming to market spare auto parts should not look like a site for gardening advice.

(Remember what happened when romance-king SRK tried to venture into the action genre with “Ra.one”? Yeah.) Each type of site requires different colors, typography, images, and layout.

Have Common Sense

And a huge one to boot. You don’t need to be Albert Einstein to know that you should update your site content often, so people are in the loop on what’s new with your business.

And if you do this, Google will love you too. It’s a no-brainer that you must proofread your content for mistakes and broken links.

Organize the information on your website in such a way that it doesn’t look like random scrambling from a person with a double-digit IQ. In short, if you want to be treated like a Pro, act like one.

And finally, the most important thing, the backbone of your website. Your website host. Host your site on a reliable server.

Not only should there be virtually no down-time, it’s also important that no e-mails go astray. (Time to shamelessly plug our wonderful offers and show you why we’re one of the best in business)

In a nutshell, there aren’t any super-complex equations involved in telling your visitors “you can trust us”.

In fact, most of what’s listed here are probably common sense. Keep these rules in mind, print them out if you have to, but keep them close, because a website without credibility is not only holding your company back, it’s also missing opportunities to get new business.