Web Credibility
Topics: copy editing, copyediting, articles, article marketing, web content, content, website
The credibility of a website includes not only how believable the content of the site is, but also how well visitors to the site believe what is on the site. When designing a website or writing web content, the credibility of the site should be a top concern. If the site lacks credibility, visitors will not be interested in the product or service available through the site. Fortunately, there are steps that designers and writers can take to increase web credibility.
Design
Stanford University’s Persuasive Technology Lab has conducted extensive research on web credibility. Through their research, they have identified a list of ten key items in website design that increase web credibility. The following are some of the items that apply strictly to the look of the site:
* Verification - Make it easy for visitors to verify the content on the website. Listing citations or sources for content, as well as providing links to third-party sites are options for simplifying verification. Regardless of whether visitors actually follow the links, their presence increases credibility.
* Real people - Show visitors that there is a real organization, with real people, behind the website. Listing a physical address or showing photos of the office and staff let visitors know that there is truly a real person involved with the products or services on the site.
* Expertise - If the members of your staff have professional credentials related to the products and services offered on the website, list the employees and their credentials. If the business is affiliated with a credible organization, provide a link on the site. A note of caution: Highlighting credentials or linking to organizations that are less than credible reduces the credibility of your site.
* Biographies - Posting the biographies of staff members helps establish web credibility by reinforcing that there are real people involved. This also helps establish a sense of trust between site visitors and employees.
* Contact information - Make sure visitors can contact you easily. List a physical address, an email address, and a phone number on the site. Contact forms serve the purpose, but many visitors prefer being able to reach a real person.
* Ease of use - If the site is not easy to use, visitors may wonder what you are trying to hide or why you are trying to confuse them. A website that is difficult to navigate and hard to use appears unprofessional.
Content
When developing web content, make sure the content is useful. In addition, content should be well written, without obvious spelling, grammar and punctuation errors. Avoid exaggerated advertising claims, which detract from credibility, and pop-ups that annoy visitors. Keep the writing friendly and straightforward, free of slang and sensationalism. Be sure to update and revise content regularly, avoiding a loss of credibility due to potentially outdated information.
Establishing web credibility is essential to the success of a website. Visitors are more likely to purchase products or services if they trust the website and the business behind it. Using a few simple techniques in web design and content can help boost credibility, which helps boost the business behind the site.
Brian Stocker is a writer, editor and online marketing specialist. Visit his website www.content-writer.org
Previous Articles Highlighter:
What Is The Best Way To Get Paid Online Over And Over Again (1)
People expect to hear from you and you do not disappoint mailing useful information and mixing in products you sell to make money over and over again for years to come.
Craigslist: Understanding The Beast (2)
Sharron Nixon is a 44 year old mother of 3 who lives in New Zealand. Find out everything you need to know about Craigslist by checking out Sharron's Website: www.sharronnixon.com
A Few Common Email Marketing Mistakes To Avoid (3)
You may blindly send your email marketing materials to millions of recipients and only generate a few leads. However, you could send the same email marketing materials to a smaller group of only a thousand recipients who all have an interest in your products and services and will likely generate more leads from this smaller email distribution list.
Importance And Benefits Of Link Popularity (4)
A temporary link to an article can help search engine ranking as well. What this all means is that link popularity is an evolving process. You should always be corresponding with site owners looking for a link trade.
Maximize Marketing Effectiveness With A Browser Toolbar (5)
3) Increase traffic to your own sites and offer direct one-click access to your your website or special promotional offers only available for your toolbar users. 4) Offering your own custom branded toolbar to your users give them a software with added value and is a unique and mutually-beneficial service.
What Is A PPC Search Engine? (6)
To facilitate in gaining more profit, new technologies, and marketing and advertising strategies have come about. One of these is the use of pay per click (PPC), which uses search engines, advertising networks, and content websites or blogs.
Win The Battle Of Relevancy Online With Custom Content (7)
Web surfers use Amazon reviews as much as they use a review in the local paper, if not more. Reviews have made Amazon a relevant and trusted resource for a department store's worth of products.
How To Make Money With Affiliate Programs (8)
Sure, you could put up links and hope for the best, but you should think about investing some time into the site if you really hope to turn a respectable profit.
Resell Rights For Digital Infoproducts - 5 Powerful Tips To Help You Succeed (9)
There are a lot of people online who use these products for their business. There are some things that you need to do when you are competing with all of the other people on the internet who are doing the same thing that you are.
Are You Wondering Whether Or Not Online Surveys Are Legit? (10)
You might even be wondering what is better; online surveys that you can earn money from, or surveys that you pay a small sign up fee for in order to earn extra income.
Five Reasons Your Company Needs A Solid SEO Plan (11)
Quality content can lead to other sites linking to the original article. This will both drive traffic from the linking site, as well as help elevate search engine ranking.
Google Page Rank Update (12)
Continue working hard as even more and more competitors are coming online as we speak. Do what's best for your customer and the search engines usually follow right along.
Using Unique Corporate Gifts To Create Lasting Impression In Your ClientsMinds (13)
Cheow Yu Yuan is a freelance article writer and specializes in article marketing on the Internet. This article is written for one of his clients in the corporate gifts industry, check out his website below: Click Here: www.Below10DollarGifts.com
Your Work At Home Business Ideas Get Power From The Customer Trust (14)
4. Your Customer Waits For The Service. When the products have become more and more alike, the personal service has value, it can form the competitive edge for your business, a way to differentiate.
I Am Getting Thousands Of Visitors Are You? (15)
You can place ads on popular video websites, so when visitors watch the videos they will see your advertisement. 4. Buy text links on high traffic sites. If you are patient there are other ways of creating traffic, but it will take time to do.
Affiliate Internet Marketing Tip: Three Ways To Failing Miserably At Affiliate Internet Marketing (16)
Great but it is still a business. That means you must: a. Set up an action plan and follow thru on it. b. Set realistic timetables for generating income.
5 Tips To Successful Affiliate Marketing (17)
On the flip side a website below 500,000 may be great when it comes to competition but the product may not be a popular web pick. Always research the merchants products and services and, if you can afford it, test the product out for yourself.
One Way Link Strategies You Need To Know (18)
Over time as you continue to build links, traffic will start arriving to your website. I did a test to see how fast I could build 100 visitors of traffic to my site.
Are You Advertising Or Spamming Your Subscribers? (19)
Banner ads are one of the most popular strategies which accompany an Internet marketing plan. These ads are usually ads which appear at the top of websites and span the width of the website.
How To Start An Internet Marketing Blog (20)
Learning each of those and publishing your knowledge will likely take at least one year, which is about how long it will take to build your traffic up to a level that will provide a significant income.
Newer Articles Highlighter:
How To Organize Your Email Marketing Campaign Effectively (1)
However, if you build your own email list of previous customers who have specifically requested additional information as well as potential customer who have also requested additional information you will have a well formulated list which includes mostly members of your target audience.
Gaining An Understanding Of Email Marketing (2)
Unlike traditional methods of marketing such as television and radio ads or print media ads which only reach an audience in a limited area anyone with access to the Internet can benefit from your email marketing techniques.
Evaluating The Response To Your Internet Marketing Campaigns (3)
Evaluating the response of your Internet marketing can be done in a number of different ways. Customer surveys and embedded HTML code are two of the most popular methods of evaluating the effectiveness of an Internet marketing campaign.
Running A Successful Online Store (4)
Just as a brick and mortar store wants easy access, an internet store needs easy access as well. Looking for a discount on your career uniforms and accessories? You might want to check out these sites.
Digital Signage: Traditional Media Show More Signs Of Weakness, But OOH Ad Networks May Offer Hope (5)
Belo, which owns newspapers like the Dallas Morning News, the Providence Journal, and the Press Enterprise, as well as owns and operates 20 TV stations, said Oct. 1 it was splitting its holdings into two companies: The New A.
A Business Perspective To Effective Email Marketing (6)
This is because these writers and designers are expected to be able to produce a higher quality of work than those with less experience could produce. The most obvious disadvantage to email marketing is the possibility of having your email marketing viewed as spam.
How To Acquire Free Web Site Promotion (7)
Maybe you're not planning the key to the best promotion of your site. Here are some guidelines on how to acquire free site promotions for your company's success. If you have started to promote your site, keep it constant.
How To Create An Outline For All Of Your Article (8)
The conclusion will wrap up your points and drive in what you are saying in your article. The outline for your article would also require you to write a draft first.
Building A Professional Business Website (9)
Sometimes this is something that you want to leave to a professional who knows the net and can assure that your website appearance will be optimized. Building a website for your business is of utmost importance, so if you want the most for your money, a website designer may be your best bet.
Email Marketing: Affordable Internet Marketing Technique (10)
Your email content must never embody any promise your business can't keep. Make your offer genuinely of value to your recipients. 4. Don't go too low. If you inform your customers regarding discounts, minimal discounts are not that effective compared with substantial discounts.
What Is Affiliate Marketing? (11)
The affiliate network acts as a third party between the merchant and the associated affiliates. The network provides the technology to deliver the merchant's campaigns and offers. The affiliate network also collects commission fees from the merchant and then pays the affiliates which are part of the program.
How Many Affiliate Checks Do You Want To Receive? (12)
However, making a fortune in affiliate marketing is not instant. You should put in enough work and effort as well. You have to use your imagination to find more ways to attract more web traffic that can convert to sales for the merchant and profit for you as well.
Using Google Adwords To Drive Traffic To Your Website (13)
Consequently, Google launched its Adwords service, as a way for businesses to advertise products and services to a targeted audience. Google Adwords can guarantee instant traffic. In this service, Google displays relevant text based ads within its search engine results page termed as "Sponsored Links".
Free Website Promotion...Why Not? (14)
Nowadays, your baby website can amass huge traffic in no time thanks to free website promotion. How does this promotion go anyway? What are things to be done?
Top Seven Ways Writing Articles Can Explode Your Business (15)
Avoid the temptation of overusing keywords just to gain a high ranking as this may turn off most web surfers. Relevance and quality is still the most important things to consider when writing articles and it will be doubly useful to your site if you make these articles search-engine optimized.
How To Get Your Subscribers Begging For More (16)
Splash some color in your emails as well as provide some photos and articles that can be related to you but show good news or good light hearted images as well.
Creating Multiple Streams Of Affiliate Marketing Income (17)
being involved in affiliate marketing is one of the most desirable ways to make multiple sources of income. It is because affiliate marketing programs come in various shapes and forms.
How To Become A Super Affiliate In Niche Markets (18)
Support will be the number one consideration for people when choosing a web host. It will be obvious that traditional advertising will become less and less effective. Most people would rather opt for the web host based on things that they see and hear.
Get Out Of Your Own Way To Increase Your PPC Conversions (19)
Not only do customers expect to be able to talk to someone, they expect that call to be free of charge as well. A toll free number is also going to further your credibility that you already established with your content and guarantee.
How To Build A List Of Eager Subscribers (20)
For example; you can do manuals and guides in so many things. This e-book could be used as a reference for many people. Share this e-book with everyone, even other sites; just make sure that they don't change the links in the e-book that will lead people to your site.