Building Trust Through Web Design

by Gina Armstrong, Lead Designer

Insights / Website Design / Building Trust Through Web Design

Trust plays an important role in building a successful brand. It determines how willing customers are to engage with your organization and share sensitive information if prompted.

Trust can be built (or broken) through your site’s design. When a user lands on your page, they immediately begin to assess it. Based on their experience with your site, they decide how comfortable they are providing information or buying a product.

To help foster a trusting relationship with your brand, here are six web design tips to keep in mind:

1. Be Mindful of Distractions

Nothing will send users running from your site faster than being bombarded with pop-ups or advertisements. If you’re going to include them, you want to be thoughtful about when and how they appear.

You should also be conscious of including videos that automatically play by keeping them muted by default. Allowing your user to turn on the sound is not only respectful, but gives them more control over their experience.

2. Tailor Your Content

Any content you include should be intentional and relevant to your target audience. Avoid being long-winded or too in-depth. Instead, opt for short blurbs that illustrate your point succinctly. (If you want more tips on writing great content, look no further.)

The next part is important – do not forget to proofread! Not proofreading your content is an all-too-common digital marketing mistake. You don’t want to lose somebody because they are turned off by misspellings and grammatical errors.

3. Make Sure the Design is High Quality and Current

This part may seem obvious, but your site should be well designed! Be sure it includes high resolution images, and nothing overly stock-y. If possible, incorporate photos of your actual office, employees, events, etc.

You’ll also want to make sure fonts and colors are aligned with your brand and style guide so they are consistent throughout the site. Everything should feel cohesive, clean, and easy to navigate.

4. Incorporate Social Proof

Awards and testimonials are a great way to show new users that you’ve already successfully established trust with others.

If you have a Facebook or Instagram where you post work or interact with clients, link to those! People want to see that your organization is real, and that means having an active social media presence. This also helps demonstrate consistency across channels and reinforces brand awareness.

If you don’t have active social accounts, make sure to have a readily available contact form or email address where users can reach out for more support.

5. Keep Everything Fresh

You have to keep your site up-to-date — and that includes your copyright year, by the way! Seeing outdated information and encountering broken links or 404 errors will lead users to believe that you’re unreliable.

If you’re not attentive to maintaining your own site, they’ll feel like you’re not going to be sensitive with their information.

6. Share Your ‘Why’

Share what motivates you and what sets you apart from the rest. By doing so, you allow users to gain an understanding of who you are, why you’re occupying this space, and how you can help them achieve their goals.

If you follow these basic principles, you should be well on your way to developing a lasting relationship with visitors. If you need help with your site, don’t hesitate to reach out to us!