You need to earn the trust of your prospects before you can turn them into customers. One of the great things about modern justice systems is belief that a person is innocent until proven guilty. Unfortunately, the world-wide web believes in just the opposite. Reports of rampant fraud, identity theft, phishing, spam mail and all sorts of scams have rendered many websites guilty in the minds of the users even if they have no previous experience of being duped by your site. Consequently, users are wary of giving out information about themselves, especially their credit card data and telephone numbers. As a result, numerous sales are lost. I call this "buying resistance". A business with an e-commerce website has the difficult task of overcoming this resistance so that prospects and customers can thrive in an atmosphere of trust and confidence. When creating a user-friendly website, what matters is prevailing over that buying resistance and compelling the user to convert and make a purchase. A website that does not have credibility killing red-flags has better chances of making a sale than those that do. A red-flag is something that raises the user's suspicions and gives them reason to doubt the site's credibility or the worthiness of the products and services. Here are the most common red-flags you should avoid on your website if you want it to be user-friendly and create the right 'chemistry' online. Having these red-flags doesn't mean your business is not credible, but to the user, you may appear to be that way. 1. No Contact Information Contact information includes your email address, phone numbers and physical address. Failing to divulge your contact information implies some degree of deceitfulness. So does having a PO Box as an address or email but no phone number. If you want your users to convert into customers, you must earn their trust by being reachable at all times. Why not check out some other companies contact us pages? Which ones make your feel confident about that business? Which ones put you off? Emulate the ones that increased your perceived credibility of the website owner. 2. A Website that Looks and Feels Amateurish For some reason, a business that is borne out of a hobby does not get as many customers as one that means real business. So if your website looks and feels homespun, it will give the impression that you are running your business from your garage. (If this is the case, you don't have to shout it out as it will only hurt your conversion rate). Whimsical logos, running dogs, pointless animations and distracting backgrounds make your site look frivolous and playful - certainly not good for business! Get a systematic and professional-looking website to exude credibility and quality. You can get an attractive website template for less than $100 if you take advantage of one of the online template vendor offers - great if you're a small company with a tight budget. It is better to spend a little more effort to come up with a customized design rather than using those free (but common) templates that are given out with web design software. You can also create a good quality free website by using WordPress. Google for free WordPress templates and be prepared to be amazed at the number of great choices out there. 3. Adding Personal Stuff Not Related to Your Business Some people may think otherwise but this is my personal pet peeve: posting family snapshots or pictures of you and your dog. A business website simply isn't the right place to showcase your devotion to your family and pets - no matter how much you love them. It's like telling all your visitors that you are a small company and you are not to be taken seriously. You can upload these photos to services like flickr and FaceBook. It's not 1996 anymore; there are better places for your snaps. It's a great idea to have professional, friendly pictures of your staff on your site, particularly if you are appealing to local customers who will visit your premises, that's fine. It shows the human side to your business. But leave it at that - no pictures of birthday parties, please? Another problem is combining distracting links to pages about your hobby, a charity you believe in and so on. Keep that information entirely separate. I can guarantee it is stopping you making sales and damaging your online marketing strategy. Why not start up a free blog on the Wordpress or Blogger sites for this information instead? 4. Non-secure Connection This is a basic requirement for transactions done through the internet. Visitors always treat business websites with suspicion when their online security is not guaranteed. Do not commit the grievous sin of having a non-secure connection. To put your visitors at ease and make them comfortable enough to buy, show them that you have a secure connection by displaying the padlock-type graphic given by your security certificate issuer. 5. Shopping Cart Shock If your business website registers a high number of shopping cart abandonments, there may be obstacles to the purchasing process. You may be asking for too much information which is not relevant to the transaction or the buying procedure may be done in the wrong sequence. These may seem insignificant to you, the site owner, but the customer may feel uncomfortable and just cut short the transaction and leave your site. Customers are alienated and confused when the check-out process look and feel is wildly different from the main website. Make the check-out process look consistent with the main website by fully customizing the look and feel. Spending money for this service will pay off in increased conversion rates and revenues. Your business website needs to be user-friendly and customer focused. Publishing poor quality information with a mercenary pursuit of sales damages the potential for your website to convert prospects into customers. It's important to be aware of these usability red-flags. Once you know that you can make your website more effective, trustworthy and customer-focused, you will improve your sales and increase conversion rates which all helps to make your business a success on the internet.
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