Making your website appear legitimate is not an easy task. When you have a look at the multitudes of fly-by-night websites, affiliate sites, and malicious sites that permeate the web, one is overwhelmed by the challenges of portraying your site as being legitimate. To add to the confusion, many legitimate sites are simply poorly designed and do not convey a sense of legitimacy to the viewer. Listed in this article are several important tactics to use and incorporate in the design of your site to not only show that your business is "on the level" but will result in higher conversions for you and your business. Get a Real World Address You should have a real world mailing address and phone number and use it in all correspondence, stationary and in all your business dealings. Google does give a ranking bonus to websites that have real world addresses that match their WHOis registration information. You can get an address by using a local mailbox rental service such as the Mailboxes Etc. or similar business. Get a Real Domain Name Anyone trying to promote themselves as a legitimate business with an address such as: http://members.shaw.ca/username, is not going to be successful. For a small annual fee, invest in a proper domain name that accurately reflects your business. Use Your Domain Email Addresses Once you have a real domain name, it is imperative that you stop using email addresses associated with your ISP. Using sales@yourisp.com is looks unprofessional and does nothing to instill confidence in the persons viewing your site. Remember that emails can be forwarded from you ISP to your domain email address very easily so that you will not miss any email communications. By using sales@mydomain.com or contact@mydomain.com not only makes you look more legitimate; but by utilizing domain email utilities allows for advance forwarding so that multiple users can receive the same emails, allows for vacation responders and allow you to use and name@yourdomain.com that you want without the fear that it has already been taken. Use Boiler Plate Pages It is vitally important to have pages on your website for the areas that people expect to see when visiting a legitimate business's website. Ensure that you have an about us, contact, privacy policy, terms of service, disclaimers and similar pages where necessary. These "boilerplate" pages go a long way in proving that your site is legitimate. It is also important to make sure that you have sufficient content on these pages and clearly show you company name and logo. Brand Marketing Your company logo is a graphical representation and a declaration of who you are, what your company provides and can reflect your company's values. It is without a doubt the single most important form of social recognition that you can utilize. Even if you can say or spell McDonald's, almost every man, woman and child understand what the golden arches represent. A well designed logo provides instant legitimacy and advertising opportunities. Do not create your own if you do not have the right expertise. Your logo should be used consistently on your website, your favicon, your stationary, your social networking profiles and in all of your business communications. Make it easy for others to use, share and distribute your logo. Quality Content Well written content is still one of the biggest factors and most effective methods of proving a site's legitimacy. Develop well written content and place it on appropriate pages. Good content is even more crucial after Google's Panda algorithm update. Regardless of whether or not you think your viewers read the content, nothing drives away a potentially converting client faster than poorly written copy. Update Your Website Engaging in updates to your web content shows visitors that you are an active participant and that you are committed to providing an interactive, informative customer experience. Actively engaging your audience through company blogs and site content breathes life to a static environment. Let the viewer know that there is a human component to the website and in not run by a faceless entity. Clear Navigation While this may not seem like a significant factor in making your site look legitimate, having poor navigation will frustrate your viewers and can cause them to leave. Make the site's navigation easy to follow and ensure that customers do not get lost. It is crucial that you do not bury your critical content. Anything that you want a customer to see or experience should be up front and no more than two clicks away from the home page. Press Releases and Media Kits Inform the public about the things that your company engages in that are "press-worthy." This helps to attract people to your site and can help encourage backlinks to your site which can help your site ranking well in Google. Incorporate press releases into your ongoing marketing campaign. Submit these press releases to a select number of high-quality, relevant news websites. Press Kits (or Media Kits) are pre-packaged sets of promotional materials that your business can distribute to the media for promotional purposes. These are often used in conjunction with a press release or news conference. Create a professional looking media kit and embed links to your web content. Have a media kit comprised of informative PDFs, promotional materials, logos, company information and affiliate programs. Press Kits help to increase your company's profile to media, businesses and the public and are a great marketing tool. Social Media Profiles Every business needs to be engaging in social mediums. Use social networking sites such as Twitter or Facebook as a means to promote your business and actively engage with your viewers. Be consistent with your logo and promotional messaging. Learn about different social networks and use only the ones that are most relevant to you and your business. Use a select few social networking sites and syndicate great content among them. Do not spread yourself too thin across too many social networking sites. Good syndicated content will propagate itself. Specialize in your area of expertise and promote your strengths as a business. Try to keep your focus on what you know. This portrays you and your business as an area of expertise. A business that neglects the importance of social media will not be realizing their full marketing potential. Ads and PPC Campaigns Many online businesses will attempt to subsidize their revenue by engaging in sponsored ad campaigns. Use these tactics with extreme caution. They may generate some extra income for your company, but they have the disadvantage of looking tacky and do very little to convey legitimacy. A great site is one that features a strong design, quality content and provides a great customer experience. Using these methods not only instills confidence and trust in you and your products, but encourages visitors in wanting to let everyone else about the great site they have discovered!
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