Loading ...Establishing a trusting relationship is one of the most difficult tasks for the average online retail site. For a site that relies on customer trust for its income, an online retailer is up against a lot of bad history in the average internet user’s experience. Establishing that trust is essential and it has to be done quickly.
Consider your own activities for a second. When you go shopping online, how do you decide who and when to trust? What things spook you? What things frustrate you? How do you decide to make a purchase?
These questions aren’t easy to answer, but answer them you should. It’s likely that your reactions will closely reflect the thoughts and actions of your chosen target user groups. You can talk to us at SEO Consult Australia about studying your target internet users for retail.
A recent search engine optimisation industry conference highlighted the problem of trustworthiness for retailers. Most prominent is the problem of time. If an internet user decides whether or not your site suits them in a matter of milliseconds, how on earth do you build trust with them?
The trustworthiness problem essentially breaks down into three parts:
- Time. Your site will barely finish downloading on the user’s screen before they decide whether or not to trust you. This means that you have to develop some very obvious signals of trustworthiness. Time is a factor for all kinds of sites, but with a retail site the seconds tend to tick by even more swiftly.
- Unpredictability. It’s impossible to tell exactly who will land on your pages. It is absolutely vital to research the many types of users who will be seeking the products you sell, and do what you can to make your site appeal to them.
- Anonymity. Just as you don’t know who will be coming to your site, the vast majority of internet users who land there won’t know anything about you. With an established retail site like Amazon, trust is inherent in a way because it’s so popular. With a smaller, less established retail site, however, trust is definitely not a given.
Of course, with each of these three problems there are potential solutions. Much of the online retailer’s trust problem should be covered by the search engine optimisation work done on the site. For example, with any site, the time factor can be countered with subtle signs in the page’s appearance. On a retail site, this should include a selection of colours and design that looks professional and use of industry badges and logos wherever you can include them. Positive off-page reviews can be helpful for your image as well.
The only real way any internet user can be sure of the trustworthiness of an unknown retailer is to try them out. Most of the time, the decision to take this step is made on the basis of the look and function of the site. Concentrate on removing any bugs before your customers are exposed to them.
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Tags: Search Engine Optimisation, SEO, SEO Consult, SEO Consult Australia
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