How To Increase Website Conversion Rates Applying Credibility Principles...at First Glance and Beyond (If Your Visitor Gets That Far)
September 2007

     Most websites, maybe yours, lose over 80 percent of the visitors within a few seconds upon landing on your site after all that hard work you did to get them there. Here is a quote furnished by Google AdWords:

        
             So, you've refined your keywords, optimized your bids, 
             and written AdWords text ads that pull in tons of targeted 
             clicks, but after looking at your Google Analytics reports, 
             you realize that your landing page has a bounce rate of 91%.
			 
			   Which means that 91% of the users coming to your site are quickly 
			   glancing around and leaving, deciding immediately that this site 
			   isn't for them.
			 
	            Recent research suggests that users decide to stay or leave your 
			   site in 8 seconds or less.

					  

     In this short time frame, visitors don't have much time to read anything about the site. Like most perception at an early stage, this is a visual thing. Research on website trust shows that people want to know about the company behind the website in an instant.

     In a nutshell, the problem is website credibility, or rather, lack of credibility.

     I did research on website trust relative to the visual (known as the creative) aspects of website credibility as part of my 2006 PhD thesis, "How and Why Credibility-Based Company Logos are Effective in Marketing Communication in Persuading Customers to Take Action: A Multiple Case Study Toward a Better Understanding of Creativity in Branding."

     In addition, Dr. B. J. Fogg of Stanford University is conducting continuing website credibility studies covering various non-visual aspects. A study some six years ago is titled Fogg, B.J. et al, 2001, "What makes websites credible? A report on a large quantitative study", Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems.

     What follows is a practical application findings on website credibility, and what website company owners can do to increase credibility, thus conversion rates. I have arranged the solutions according to when visitors first arrive at the website, then what they do afterwards because this is how we perceive and evaluate company websites for credibility.

First Glance Web Optimization

     When visitors land on a website, the first thing they do is mentally evaluate in an instant whether they can trust the information on the site enough to continue. Like all information, this is a matter of whether or not the source of the information can be trusted to overcome perceptions of risk, uncertainty and even possible identity theft. Trust or no trust happens during the visitor's initial impressions or "first glance" at a website when visitor is still unfamiliar with the vendor.

     In people to people interaction, we evaluate the person doing the talking before we accept the person's message. Tonya Reiman who evaluates non-verbal behavior of people on TV and in seminars gives this familiar observation:

First impressions affect everything and everyone. Studies show that job interviews are basically decided within the first few moments of an encounter and are based more on how much the interviewer likes the applicant as opposed to the requirements of the position or the background of the interviewee. Research out this year (2006) indicates that we determine whether we feel someone is trustworthy in just 1/10 of a second. Did you read that?? 1/10 of a second - a mere blink to conclude whether we have belief, confidence, faith and security about someone. That is pretty powerful.

     On a website, we evaluate the company behind the information. The company is evaluated at "first glance" during the first three seconds of a website encounter. But on a website, the initial period of trust is not based on the visitor's personal experience with the vendor. The visitor and vendor do not have a personal relationship history. The visitor makes a trust evaluation on what information, verbal and visual, is available. Otherwise, the vendor is faceless.

     But on a website, the initial period of trust is not based on the visitor's personal experience with the vendor. The visitor and vendor do not have a personal relationship history. The visitor makes a trust evaluation on what information, verbal and visual, is available. Otherwise, the vendor is faceless.

     Trust is one part of credibility. Expertise is the other. A website cannot have credibility unless both parts are there. The following suggestions will increase website credibility and conversion rates. (For those interested in more about the research findings, please visit www.powerlogos.com or email the author at bill@haigbranding.com)

1. Show that there is a real organization behind the website, as an honest trustworthy company.

   This is done most effectively with a credibility-based logo design sm representing the company. The credible company logo is usually in the upper left hand corner of the website. Perception theory in communication persuasion suggests that people immediately want to know the source of the message which follows. Just like when we often look first for the name of the person on an envelop or post card.

   Similarly, visitors to a website look at the company logo, or search for the company name if there is no logo, at "first glance."

   Then, simultaneously,

2. Show that there is a credible organization behind the website with an appropriately designed credibility-based home page.

   A company website home page must be designed with the same appropriate credibility traits as in the company logo. This will also give consistency in credibility traits important to the company behind the website.

   Logos and home pages are perceived almost simultaneously. People perceive the "whole" before they perceive the parts. Although the eye will go immediately to the company logo or name (as a part) after perceiving the "whole" or overall visual character of the home page. Thus, the company credibility-based logo design and the home page design must have a consistency in credibility design "look." For example, the logo cannot have a contemporary design and the home page a dated design.

   The bottom line with first impressions is that the whole visitor perception, logo and home page, must communicate credibility to assure the visitor continues at this initial web experience --- at "first glance." These first impressions are key to trust building and continued visitor conversions to being a customer. For more on credibility-based logo and home page design, visit www.powerlogos.com.

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© William L. Haig, Ph.D. or Bill Haig, Ph.D. 2007

This is an original work of the author. All rights reserved. Copyright registration will be applied for. No part of this article may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical photocopying, and recording or otherwise, without prior written permission of the author.