Trusting online websites is a big issue these days, especially for e-commerce WordPress websites, because to buy anything the visitor has to give over personal data including their credit card number.
That means giving sensitive information that can be taken advantage of by hackers. Fake websites are present on the internet too, with what looks like a payment gateway and they are waiting for someone to enter their info.
Online businesses are in a real pickle with companies across industry seeing a decline in consumer confidence. Companies must build trust with their consumers, which is the main focus of this guide.
Here are some general advice, as well as small but meaningful tips about making your website trustworthy.
Mobile user first
Making your website trustworthy starts with making a good first impression. A modern e-commerce WordPress website needs to be mobile-friendly. This way your website will be welcoming to mobile visitors, which already makes 50% of the search queries.
Conforming content to “mobile-first” indexing will help with regular search engine crawler bot having up to date information about your website.
Because you own a WordPress website this is not a hard task, but it requires that you choose your (responsive) website theme well, and if needed add an SEO plugin that will help with mobile indexing.
Visual presentation
Invest efforts into your website, design, structure, and functionality, and customers will appreciate it. By seeing your desire to make their experience better, visitors will trust your website better.
The website design and form need to be clear, concise images from different views and text descriptions so the visitor can see and learn all they need to know about the product.
Visitors will not trust an e-commerce website with very shallow product descriptions and information. All data about the product, from guarantee and return policy to care and delivery, should be available.
Website performance
Page speed is an important factor because modern internet user has very little patience for slow-loading pages and it just may happen they will leave before the page loads, or customers won’t trust that your website is reliable and they will not spend their money there.
Whenever it is needed, indicate that pages may be getting redirected. The visitor should see a message if this happens, especially if it is somewhat long load time. Again, if the page is too slow, nobody stays around to watch an empty browser window.
WordPress website caching, as well as image optimization and CDN (content-delivery-network) plugins can improve your website performance, especially for distant and overseas customers.
Website security
You should be aware that your customers will not give their information to the unsecure website. Namely, your e-commerce website must have an SSL certificate that will enable HTTPS encryption and make your website more trustworthy.
Maybe you did not know, but having an SSL certificate (https) with your website is beneficial for your website SEO because Google favors secure websites. I would not leave my email or any other personal data with a website that does not encrypt its client-server communication.
About us, our team, and contact pages
About us page should give information about the company running the website, and if possible the people behind it. Having an “our website team” page (or displaying it as part of one page) with pictures is a good indication that the site is legit, run by real people.
The contact page should provide a contact form, as well as all necessary contact information such as email, phone, social media … etc.
Customer reviews and/or testimonial page with e-commerce
Other users/customers need to see real reviews and testimonials from real people. The voice of a previous customer that expresses how positive their experience with your website was, and how lovely the products are, can be much more persuasive than any sales copy from even the best copywriters.
Money-back guarantee
If the overall quality of the product you sell is really good, you should have no issues offering a money-back guarantee. With such backing, you will build a strong basis for a trustworthy relationship between you and your customers.
Building the credibility of your brand is vital in the e-commerce sphere. A money-back guarantee and clear return policy will help to bolster customer confidence and trust in your brand.
Advanced tips that can give you an edge over any e-commerce competition
So far we have been focused on the important, make-or-break a website aspects of an e-commerce WordPress website, but now let’s go over some advanced tips that will help you stay one step ahead of the competition:
- Go easy on ads for additional products or services. Yes, banner and pop-up ads can help you generate extra revenue, but they can annoy visitors and make them want to leave, so with this in mind be very moderate.
- Avoid spammy (long) domain names if possible. Your domain name should be your brand name, relatively short, recognizable and easy to remember, not a rambling product description.
- Swiftly communicate with your customers that have asked for additional information through email, voice, chat or telephone. Even if you have no additional information for a specific product, be respectful of your customer and reply noting that you are not able to produce more info for that product but you are there and willing to help.
- Any trust badges or seals your business earned should be displayed proudly because these are the kinds of things that make customers feel like they can trust your website.
- Small things that irritate your customers are broken links, spelling errors, low-quality images for products … etc. Eliminate these to improve your overall website quality.
- Simple transaction system. Every step of the transaction should be simple, clear, and reassuring.
- Create a FAQ page which answers frequently asked questions and helps you to include detailed shipping or return information.
Conclusion
Yes, trust is difficult to build online, because it does not involve a face-to-face relationship with your customers. An e-commerce store owner needs to work extra hard to create a website that builds trust with visitors.
WordPress website owners are in luck because there are abundant plugins that can help them chisel their website to perfection, while our guide will provide insight into concrete actions you should take.