Is your website trustworthy? Five ways to show it

When a potential customer lands on your website, they are looking for more than just a particular product or service. They are also looking for signs of whether you're a business they can trust and engage with.

Trust is a massive issue when it comes to online purchases, and there are some questions customers are guaranteed to ask. Can I trust the products will be good quality? Can I trust they will be delivered in one piece? Can I trust this brand? Make sure the answers to these questions are all 'yes' with our...

Five top tips for proving your website is trustworthy

1. Focus on design
   Your website needs to reflect the quality of the products on offer that means web design is of the utmost importance. Everything from the fonts to the colours has an effect on the way your website is perceived. Pay a professional to help you achieve a slick site and your customers will instinctively find it easier to trust you.

2. Be clear about your privacy policy
   Privacy is a hot topic for many web users, so prove you'll handle their information in a professional manner by displaying your privacy policy. If you use cookies, let users know whether they can opt out, and make it clear what you will and won't do with their details.
   
3. Check page-load speed
   Page-load times will also have an impact on how trustworthy customers deem your website to be. A slow-loading site makes customers more likely to click away. This can have a negative effect on your search rankings too, so check your speeds with handy sites like Pingdom.
   
4. Include third-party seals
   Adding trust seals and guarantees from third-party security or antivirus software companies is another great way to show you are serious about looking after your customers. Proving that you're happy to have your business vetted by other trustworthy companies is an excellent way to win over customers.
   
5. Be open about your business
   You'd be surprised by the number of businesses that don't bother to include comprehensive information about themselves on their own websites. The more useful information you provide and the easier it is for people to contact you, the more likely they are to deem you trustworthy.