Chances are you’re reading this right now because you’re curious to know how this one thing can make your website more successful. First, let’s define what a “successful website” is.

A successful website includes things like getting more website visitors, increasing positive brand exposure, receiving more email subscribers and getting more leads that convert into sales.

If this sounds like the kind of website you need then read on.

You might be wondering what exactly this one secret is. Well, I’ll tell you straight out of the gate. You ready? Here’s the secret. Drum rolll please… t-r-r-r-r-r-f-f-dish!

Trust.

Yip, that’s right. T.R.U.S.T

Business happens at the speed of trust.

That’s it. This blog post is over. You can carry on doing something else with your valuable time now, unless you want to discover how to generate trust for your website, right now.

You still reading? Excellent. Now check out this nifty little guide I’ve put together to help you assess whether your website is bringing you the bottom line business results you need.

Without further ado, here are 4 vital elements a successful website needs to build trust.

Successful websites have a clear value proposition.

1. A clear value proposition

It’s amazing how so many websites get this wrong. It’s even more amazing how easy it is for you to get it right and win over more customers.

When people look for information, services or products online, they look for signals of trust. A clear value proposition is the easiest way to provide this signal.

That’s why your website needs a clear message that makes an immediate emotional connection and communicates the benefit of your offer clearly.

Research has shown that if people don’t understand your offer within 10 seconds you risk people leaving your website and ultimately you’re losing out on sales.

Quick, count to 10 and see just how quickly those 10 seconds evaporate into thin air.

A clear value proposition is the key to attract people immediately by giving them a sense that they’re at the right website.

How you word your value proposition makes all the difference in that first 10 seconds.

How to craft a good value proposition

  • Get emotional: Your value proposition should make an immediate emotional connection.
  • Differentiation: Explain how your service/product is different from that of your competitors.
  • Focus on the benefits: State benefits of using your service or product as well as features.
  • Avoid obvious sales speak: Such as “the best” or “world-class,” as well as any jargon or acronyms.
  • Be customer centric: Use customer-centric language rather than company-centric language. Steer clear of using the words “we,” “our” or “I.”

2. Stunning visual design

Did you know that when people meet you for the first time they make judgements about you within the first 7 seconds, mostly based on your visual appearance.

Now think about your website. What do you want those first impressions to be? Do you want your website to be perceived as trustworthy or credible or professional or interesting or even fun?

Design has the ability to evoke powerful emotions and attitudes. It influences how people perceive your website and ultimately whether they can trust your website.

Although beauty is a highly subjective thing, conclusive studies have shown that people consciously or subconsciously make judgments on the visual appearance of a website very quickly.

Not only should your website be beautiful but it should be appropriate for your audience. When you have the right combination of beauty combined with market appeal then your website will have an edge over your competitor’s website.

Emotion plays a vital role to capture and keep people’s attention in traditional marketing. It will continue to play an important role for companies that want to build a personable and trustworthy face on the internet.

That’s why you need to keep the following factors in mind when you design your website.

How to design a great looking website:

  • Brand identity: Make sure your website reflects your brand identity clearly and consistently.
  • Colour use: Use colour wisely and make use of white space while using contrast to highlight important things on your website.
  • Typography treatment: Make sure the headings and wording on your website is highly legible and adds to the overall visual impression you want to communicate.  
  • Imagery: Use the appropriate images that resonates with your target audience while making sure they are high quality and as unique as possible.
  • Layout: A neatly laid out website creates a very trustworthy impression

3. An optimal user experience

You might be asking – What is UX design?

In web design, UX Design is the art and science of understanding your audience and designing a website that provides them with the best experience possible.

Now it goes a lot deeper than this.

UX designers usually do quite a bit of research upfront to ensure they understand your audience well. You can’t really design a great website if you don’t understand who you’re designing for, right?

In addition to understanding your audience, UX designers make sure that your website content and functionality is designed in such a way to make it straightforward for people to interact with your website, find the information they’re looking for or do tasks easily.

Furthermore, UX Designers will continually perform usability tests on your website during the design process to make sure that people can use your website effortlessly.

How to ensure your website has a great user experience

  • Audience: Understanding your audience is the key to designing a website with a great user experience.
  • Test: Continually test your designs with real people as early and as often as possible.

Successful websites have well written content.

4. Well written content

Words deliver the right message into the hearts and minds of your customers.

A great design will be worthless without the the right words.

Just think for a moment what a website would look like without words. How would you be able to tell a story or sell anything without words?

Words are the glue that binds all the pieces of a website together.

Words on a website does the very important job of creating trust by telling your audience what they need to know when they need to know it – while the tone of the words underpins the personality of your company.

How to write great website content

  • Customer centric: Keep your wording customer centric. Remember your audience is on your website with a certain need – make sure your words speak to that need.
  • Keep it simple: Write as if you’re writing for a 12 year old. This makes your language easy to follow.
  • Make it scannable: People tend to scan websites so make sure your website content is broken up into scannable pieces of content.
  • Write for lazy people: Keep your sentences short and stay away from jargon.

Conclusion:

All these vital elements must work together in harmony to create a trustworthy website. In fact, they are like pillars of a great building. If one of these pillars are removed you might end up with a bit of a problem.

Build trust by having a clear value proposition, stunning visual design, an optimal user experience and well written content.