The Internet is a crowded place.  According to a recent NetCraft survey, 1.5 million websites were added to the Internet during June 2009 alone. It seems everyone wants to take a piece of the proverbial Internet pie.

As a website owner, you’ve already got a piece of that pie.  Now all you’ve got to do is convince your customers that your pie is the real deal — not some chintzy store brand knockoff.  In a word, you need credibility.

Credibility is what tells your customers that your company is light years ahead of the 13-year old kid down the street that’s just trying to make a few extra bucks this summer.  Check out this list of 22 things you can do right now to make your website more credible:

1. Have Quality Content

Let’s face it, nobody wants to read a blog of auto-aggregated posts. There are far too many high-quality blogs out there to waste time on such nonsense. A lot has been said about this topic already, so I won’t belabor the topic any further. For further reading:

• How to Create Better Content: Treat Your Readers Like Dogs (Copyblogger)
• 40 Ways to Deliver Killer Blog Content (Chris Brogan)
• How to Become an Authority in Your Niche: Eight Content Development Tactics (Dosh Dosh)

2. Make Consistent Updates

Have you ever walked by a store day after day to see the same products in the window with the same offers? It doesn’t happen. And if it does happen, you can bet that the store will go out of business. The same principle applies to your website. Give people the impression that you are busy! One word of caution: If you use blog feeds, twitter feeds, etc., make sure that they don’t drown out the main purpose of your website. Some resources:

• 100 Blog Topics I Hope YOU Write (Chris Brogan)
• 10 Awesome Ways to Integrate Twitter With Your Website (Nettuts+)

Also, displaying a date stamp at the bottom of your website will help show customers that your website is updated frequently.

3. Display Real World Contact Information

Do you want to let people know that your business is legitimate? Put a physical address on your website. If you work from home, put down your home address. Is it safe? Are people going to send you spam mail? Probably. But let’s face it; if spammers really want your address, they’ll get it anyways.

4. Include Search Functionality

For a website with several levels of navigation, this one is a must. No matter how much sense you think your navigation makes, most people would much rather have the computer do the heaving lifting for them. If you don’t feel like programming your own search engine, take a look at Google’s Custom Search. It works wonderfully and is very customizable.

• Google Site Search – A Google Search Engine for Your Website (Google)

5. Make an Obvious Place for Feedback/Help

Nothing irks me more than when I am on a website and can’t find a place to get help. Create a form for feedback! Make it obvious! If you have a customer service number, put it somewhere on every page (even if it’s at the very bottom in the footer).

• 9 Common Usability Mistakes In Web Design (Smashing Magazine) – See #5

6. Avoid too Much Info (E-Dribble) / the SEO Trap

Two things on this one: 1) Company website committees are always a bad idea. There are far too many technical considerations that go into a website for the company secretary to be having a significant say in what goes and what doesn’t. You will end up with a whole bunch of content that doesn’t really matter, or “E-Dribble” as my friend Bob Rajan calls it. Get the trusted opinion of a graphic designer, SEO expert, usability expert, marketing/social media expert, and a programmer. Sure, you need some feedback from your target market — just keep in mind that your target market is not within your own office space (in most cases). 2) Please don’t stuff your website with SEO keywords. Google will penalize you for doing this, and it will make your customers confused or upset.

• Great Comic on Keyword Stuffing (Ranked Hard)

7. Focus on Design/Navigation/Usability

I won’t go into any detail on these topics. There are literally thousands of quality articles on each of these topics.

Some resources to explore:

• Smashing Magazine – Covers all of these topics.
• UX Booth – Covers usability.
• Psdtuts – Has tutorials on web interface design.
• Noupe – Covers all of these topics.
• Pattern Tap – Inspiration for good design/navigation/usability.

8. Display Security Badges

If you run an e-commerce website, this is a must. Check out Amazon.com for examples.

9. Include Testimonials

These always help, even if you have to get your relatives to help you out.

10. Write a Detailed About Us Page

People are curious. They want to know who the man or woman behind the curtain is. You don’t need to be embarrassed if you are a small company. Some people like doing business with small companies over the big companies anyways.

11. Display Clear Terms of Service

This is where you make any disclaimers and get all of the legal mumbo jumbo down somewhere in writing. Don’t feel like shelling out the dough for a lawyer?  Use this free tool instead:

• Privacy Policy / Terms of Service Generator (Ben Nadel)

12. Include a Privacy Policy (if applicable)

The privacy policy is to inform your users what information you are gathering when they are visiting your website. This includes personally identifying information (such as forms, cookies, etc.) as well as non-personally identifying information (analytics such as browser type, geographic region, language preference, etc.). Take a look at almost any website and it SHOULD have one (unless you’re a blog or something like that ).

13. Make a Print CSS File

Even in our paperless world, there still are A LOT of people that would rather print out something before reading it. If you want people to seriously read your content, then make it easy for them to print. This can be done with what’s called a print CSS file — if you have no idea what the heck print CSS even means, don’t worry.  A quick Google search will help.  Or, if you use WordPress for your website/blog, take the easy way out with this plugin:

• Bunny’s Print CSS Plugin (Wordpress)

14. Make Your Site Mobile-ready

What’s the point? Well, have you seen how many BlackBerries and iPhones there are these days? I look at 5-10 websites every day on a mobile device. A company can communicate attention to details through small things like this.

15. Avoid Stock Photos and Animated GIFs

Forgive me if I offend you on this point. Five things:

1. First of all, DO NOT USE GOOGLE IMAGES. Please, please, please. There are much better free resources out there. See below for some suggestions.
2. Don’t try to make your images bigger. This will lead to pixelation and a very poor looking website.
3. Be careful with free/cheap stock photography. Avoid using the top-rated photo on sites like iStockPhoto. You don’t want the picture on your front page to be the exact same as someone else’s.
4. Don’t use stock photography to represent people in your own company. If you’re trying to show what your company is like, take a little bit of extra time to get your own photos. Nobody likes “fakie” things.
5. Lastly, I’d like to talk about animated GIF’s. There are very, very few instances when animated GIF’s add to the credibility of a website.

Free yourself from mediocrity:

• Creative Commons Search – This will search flickr and a few other popular photo sharing sites for Creative Commons images. Many of these images have been specially licensed for commercial use.
• Vecteezy – If you happen to have a copy of Adobe Illustrator laying around. Check this website out. You really don’t need any superior skills to use these.

16. Don’t Startle Your Visitors

Hidden music. Don’t do it. Strange people walking onto the bottom of the screen. Don’t do it. Advertisements that talk without a click. Don’t do it. Marketing boxes that pop up as soon as you enter the website…I think I’ve made my point. I leave a website immediately if any of these events occur.

17. Don’t Forget Titles on Pages

This might seem like a strange detail to single out. It’s important. The page title is one of the most important parts of a website in terms of search engine optimization and navigation. If the titles of the pages are inconsistent or misspelled, you can bet that there are a lot of other “little details” that will be overlooked within that company. Guides to page titles:

• How to Write Killer Blog Titles & Why Mine Suck (Outspoken Media)

18. Keep Your Code Organized

Another “little detail” that can be telling of how serious a company is about doing business the right way. Use these code optimizers:

• Clean CSS
• JS Minifier

19. Check for Broken Links

The problem with broken links is obvious. Here are some ways to help keep on top of your links:

• W3C Link Checker (W3C)
• Free Online Broken Link Checker (DeadLinks)

20. Be Careful with ads

In an effort to maximize revenues, many websites will purposely try to place ads where they will accidentally be clicked on. These throw your credibility out the window. Nobody likes trickery when it comes to business.

21. Ensure Cross-Browser Compliance

Creating a website that works on all of the major browsers is a time-consuming and costly undertaking. I recommend that you just focus on the modern browsers: Firefox 2.0 and up, Safari 3 and up, and  Internet Explorer 7 and up (some will argue that IE6 still needs support). Some resources to check what your website looks like in multiple browsers:

• Browser Lab (Adobe)
• Multiple IEs (TredoSoft)
• Cross Browser Testing (CrossBrowserTesting.com)

22. Have Good Error Management

When users take a wrong turn on a website, it never hurts to have a little help to guide them back to where they really want to go. A good error page can do just that.  Here are some fun examples:

• Chrisjennings.com
• A List Apart
• iStockPhoto

In case you wanted something a little more technical:

• 15 Essential Check Before Launching Your Website (Smashing Magazine)
• The Ultimate Website Launch Checklist (Box UK)
• Web Standards Checklist (Max Design)

Special thanks to:

• Pierre-Yann Dolbec
• Heather Burns
• Bob Rajan
• Wallace Jackson
• Dipti Tandon

No related posts.

• Previous Entry: Is Social Networking For Business Even Worth It?
• Next Entry: How to Save Inspiration for When you Need it