What a Poor Website Experience Tells Customers About Your Business

Few things are more important to a brand's reputation than its website. And yet too many companies, particularly as they get caught up in the day to day of running a business, forget just how central their site is to perceptions of their organization.

Fairly or unfairly, visitors to your home on the web—and in particular, potential customers—make conscious and unconscious judgments about your company based on their online experience.

For example:

• Sluggish load times communicate poor customer service. Slow to load sends an unconscious message that you may also be slow to answer the phone, slow to respond to a complaint, slow to deliver an order.
• Confusing navigation suggests you don’t understand what your customer wants. It foretells other potential issues for your prospects, such as frustrating  calls with salespeople, products that don't do quite what they are expected to do, and policies that aren't quite what they seem.
• Infrequent content updates suggest you are behind the innovation curve. If you can't keep your blog updated, how do I know you keep your product updated? How do I know you keep up with the news and trends in your industry? I don't.
• Spelling and grammatical mistakes tell the world you have shoddy workmanship. I noticed that you misspelled a word in a homepage headline—so I'm now going to trust you to do a meticulous job on my tax return, kitchen sink or marketing plan?
• Poor website SEO says you're not important, allowing Google to consign your site to the farthest reaches of the web. It's like having your fancy office in a bad neighborhood or having your important business dinner in the booth right next to the men's room.

Yes, this all amounts to a simple analogy, but it's more than that. It's how people think. And it's how website visitors learn to trust—or not trust—your brand.

So ignore website trust signals if you wish. But ignore them at your peril.

To learn more, see this comprehensive list of "68 Tips for Designing a Trust-Centered Website" on the Idea Grove blog.