Considering that 90 percent of information transmitted to the brain is visual, and images are processed 60,000 times faster than text, it’s no surprise that consumers are making snap judgments about companies’ credibility based on the look and feel of their websites. According to research from the Stanford Technology Lab, 46 percent of consumers cite website design as the number one factor determining their impression of a company’s credibility. Naturally you want to make sure that your website is helping—not hurting—your credibility with potential customers.
Establishing Professionalism
An old, outdated, ugly, or dysfunctional website creates a very bad first impression for potential customers. As we all know, first impressions matter! You need to make sure that your website has a unified and appealing visual design, is easy to navigate, and is free of typos, broken links, mismatched fonts, and other errors that will make your business seem sloppy and unprofessional. You also need a dedicated mobile site that will display properly on smartphones and other devices in order to establish yourself as a professional company that understands the needs of the modern consumer.
Establishing Expertise
In addition to featuring a great design, your website also needs to include great content. For today’s online consumer, this means text, images, and video. Data gathered by MDG Advertising shows that content containing compelling images garners 94 percent more total views than content without images, so it’s highly recommended you add images to your website as well as to any marketing materials or social media postings you may be generating. All of your content should be geared towards establishing your company as an expert in your field, and you need to update it regularly in order to show ongoing engagement with and relevance to your industry.
Establishing Trustworthiness
Together, trustworthiness and expertise are considered the building blocks of credibility. Research conducted by Stanford has found that connecting your website to a brick-and-mortar office or address, featuring employee bios and/or photos on your site, and prominently displaying multiple types of contact information helps to build trustworthiness. So make sure your website architecture leaves room for content aimed at humanizing your web presence and letting consumers know that there are real, honest, and trustworthy people standing behind your brand.
Is Your Current Website Hurting Your Business?
If your current website looks like a throwback to the first days of the internet or something that a student put together as a project, you need a redesign. Webstract Marketing can help. We keep up with all the latest trends in website design so we can give you a site that will satisfy today’s visual consumers and ensure their first impression of your business is a positive one—whether they access your site from a computer or from a mobile device.
