What Are the Trust Factors Customers Look for on Local Business Websites?
When it comes to local business online, the factors and expectations of potential customers will vary wildly when compared with a multinational company. With no large publicity budget, no implied reliability due to size, local business, as they have always done need to generate and nurture the trust factor. When you take into consideration the short attention span of today’s internet visitors, a website needs to grab the attention and trust of their visitor very quickly, and so the purpose of this article will be to give you some tips, ideas, and suggestions to achieve this.
The Four P’s
The first thing that most customers are concerned about when visiting a local website is what is known within the local marketing industry as the four P’s:
Price
Products
Place
Phone Number
They don’t want to be hunting for this valuable information, so it needs to be front and center. Otherwise, the inclination is that you as a business are trying to hide things from them, particularly regarding the price point. As mentioned above the patience factor of most people is very short, so if the price of goods is not very obvious, they will leave quickly as that trust factor is deemed to be broken.
Yelp and Google Reviews
Human beings have a pack mentality, and it is unusual for them to want to go against the flow. When they are spending money on a service or a product, they like to be convinced that they are doing the right thing. You are much more likely to but a new product, if your friend or someone whose opinion you value recommends to you that a complete stranger. On the internet, while you might not be able to find a recommendation from a friend or acquaintance, the next best thing may be the reviews of a business on Yelp.
In theory, at least, these are independent reviews of your business, so prospective customers can check out the reviews and make a more informed choice. The more positive reviews you have, the more beneficial they are to your business, so it might be worth encouraging satisfied customers to leave comments on your Yelp page.
Government or Business Certifications
Most potential customers will have no knowledge of you whatsoever, so the great leveler regarding expertise is which qualifications you hold. People value qualifications, they believe that those qualification demonstrate a level of competence and quality, so ensure you place the appropriate certificates or icons on your website, to take advantage of this, after all, you worked hard t gain those qualifications, so you might as well make use of them.
While many SEO companies will tell you about the importance of driving traffic to your site, that site is your unpaid salesman. You need to make sure it is fit for purpose, well presented, and utilizes all of the above. Take the time to ensure your site looks great and has all of the important information and it will more than repay the investment. This video might give you an excellent idea how to increase trust in your business website.
