Establishing Credibility

(Information from the Stanford Web Credibility Research project)

1. Make it easy to verify the accuracy of the information on your site.

Build web site credibility by providing third-party support (citations, references, source material) for information you present, especially if you link to this evidence.

Even if people don't follow these links, you've shown confidence in your material.

2. Show that there's a real organization behind your site.

Show that your web site is for a legitimate organization to boost the site's credibility.

List a physical address.

Post a photo of offices or list a membership with the chamber of commerce or other organizations.

3. Highlight the expertise in your organization and in the content and services you provide.

Mention experts on your team.

Note contributors or service providers who are authorities.

Be sure to give credentials.

List any affiliations with respected organizations.

Make affilliations clear.

Don't link to outside sites that are not credible. Your site becomes less credible by association.

4. Show that honest and trustworthy people stand behind your site.

S how there are real people behind the site and in the organization.

Find ways to convey their trustworthiness through images or text. For example, some sites post employee bios that tell about family or hobbies.

5. Make it easy to contact you.

Boost your site's credibility is by making your contact information clear: phone number, physical address, and email address.

6. Design your site so it looks professional (or is appropriate for your purpose).

Pay attention to layout, typography, images, consistency issues, and more. People quickly evaluate a site by visual design alone. The visual design should match the site's purpose.

7. Make your site easy to use—and useful.

Don't forget about users--refrain from catering to company's ego or trying to show the dazzling things you can do with web technology.

Research shows that sites win credibility points by being both easy to use and useful.

8. Update your site's content often (at least show it's been reviewed recently).

Show that the site has been updated. People assign more credibility to sites that show they have been updated or reviewed recently.

Keep your site up and running.

9. Use restraint with any promotional content (e.g., ads, offers).

Avoid having ads on your site if possible.

Clearly distinguish the sponsored content from your own.

Avoid pop-up ads, unless you don't mind annoying users and losing credibility.

10. Avoid errors of all types, no matter how small they seem.

Fix all typographical and grammatical errors.

Monitor for broken links that hurt a site's credibility more than most people imagine.

11. Post a privacy policy if you collect information from people or monitor in any way.

Privacy policies are not how most people judge credibility even though in surveys people say privacy policies are important. However, some state and federal laws now require such policies and it is good practice.

Read the latest report from Stanford's Web Credibility Research project