Six Ways to Build Customer Trust Using Your Website | B2B Marketing Blog

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To build a successful business, customer trust is crucial. You need to strategize how you will establish that trust up front through your content and messaging, then maintain it over time with sound, ethical business practices.

Your website is your “online storefront” where prospects will most often form their first impression of your business and learn about your company before proceeding with completing calls-to-action and making purchases, so you need to carefully consider how you can demonstrate to your site visitors that your business is trustworthy.

Here are six ways in to do that.

Understand and utilize current user experience (UX) and user interface (UI) design methods across your website’s pages. Also, use a modern, professional graphic design approach for your website. Having an attractive, easy-to-navigate, professional appearance helps your website earn trust among your visitors.

Update your overall web design through tactics such as using a stylish and appropriate color palette, giving each web page a specific purpose, using consistent fonts, avoiding clutter, and checking for grammatical errors and typos.

Getting the design right is only half the battle. To inspire trust in your users, it’s imperative that your site is fully functional.

It’s vital to test all of the components on your website to ensure they are all functioning correctly, using multiple devices (iOS, Android, desktop) and browsers (particularly the big four: Chrome, Edge, Safari, and Firefox).

That includes making sure elements like links in headers and footers, payment gateways, subscription forms, social media icons, and automated email sequences are all working exactly as intended.

With the design and functionality taken care of, focus next on using social proof to customer trust on your website. One of the simplest ways of doing that is to show the logos of your well-known current or past clients.

Showing your visitors that your business works with brands that they recognize helps establish respect and trust in your company. Incorporating names and logos of well-known companies you work with enhances the credibility of your business.

As inspiration, take a look at how Revelation Machinery uses the logos of the best-known brands for the used machines that they sell on their new website.

While adding logos of well-known clients helps establish your brand credibility, using case studies, customer testimonials, and reviews further builds trust among your website users.

Customer testimonials and reviews help demonstrate how satisfied your past customers have been with your products or services, and encourage new prospects to purchase from you.

Website visitors are less likely to trust your business if you use the same stock photos they have seen on half a dozen other websites. The more unique and professional your website looks, the more you can build customer trust.

Using professionally shot images of your products and people, rather than stock photography, humanizes your brand and makes your company seem more authentic.

Another simple but effective way of building trust with your website visitors is to include trust badges on your site. These legitimize your business and show prospects your company is reputable.

Two types of trust badges that you should definitely make use of are an SSL certificate and a secure payment icon.

The former refers to the security lock icon next to your URL. This is now a basic requirement for every website. With an SSL certificate, you provide authentication to your website’s security as it means there is a safe and encrypted connection between your website and the users.

An SSL certificate ensures your site is secure and also puts visitors at ease as they know they can trust your site. When users trust your website, they are more likely to complete calls to action, provide personal information, and make purchases.

For ecommerce websites, the secure payment icon is just as important. If you accept monetary payments on your website, it’s vital that your customers have assurance they’re making secure payments with a reputable company.

Also, if your business accepts card payments, you must abide by the rules implemented by the PCI DSS. By ensuring your site is completely secure, you can quickly build customer trust.