Creating Trust — A CRO Must

Creating trust is the foundation of effective conversion rate optimisation. Everything you do, from deciding on the wording of your call to action to planning your graphics and images, is really designed to do just this. Visitors will not become customers, or repeat visitors, or complete the desired CTA if they do not trust your site. They say you cannot judge a book by its cover; but your visitors do. Your cover, your page, says a lot about who and what you are. How can you build a greater level of trust?

• Maintain a professional site. This does not mean you have to hire designers and programmers; if you don’t have room on the budget, there are some great DIY options that enable you to create a great site. Be wary, though, of any templates or designers that do not use today’s best practices: how do they place important material? Do they use whitespace well? Are pages too colourful – do they look like they’re trying too hard, or not hard enough?
• Have an informative About Us page. Don’t skip this; users want to know more about anyone with whom they decide to do business.
• Have an address and phone number prominently listed on your webpage. People are hesitant to purchase from an online-only entity. What if they have a problem? What if this site is not legitimate?
• Clearly explain your shipping and return policies. This is a major source of concern for most consumers.
• Have a clear and detailed privacy policy.
• Take the steps to obtain an SSL certification, such as one issued by VeriSign.
• Only ask for the information you absolutely need.  If, for instance, your CTA is signing up for an online newsletter, why would you ask for the visitors’ physical addresses or phone numbers? Asking for too much is a big red flag.
• Check your spelling! Would you want to give your credit card number to someone who misspells product names or makes egregious grammatical errors?
• Give the consumer as much information as possible when they do purchase an item. Email them when the order is received, when the order is shipped, and provide an estimated date for arrival. If you can, offer package tracking or use a delivery service that has this feature.
• Enable customer ratings and reviews. This is tremendously helpful to consumers, and it demonstrates your willingness to be transparent about transactions and business practices. If there is a negative review or rating, address it. This, too, ups your credibility, especially if you resolve the problem in a fair way.

Trust is crucial to conversion rate optimisation efforts. The best policy is to be as transparent as possible: users should know what to expect as soon as they hit your landing page.