How can you boost your web site’s credibility?

These were published in 2002, but they are just as spot on today as they were then.

We have compiled 10 guidelines for building the credibility of a web site. These guidelines are based on three years of research that included over 4,500 people.

1. Make it easy to verify the accuracy of the information on your site. You can 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. Showing that your web site is for a legitimate organization will boost the site’s credibility. The easiest way to do this is by listing a physical address. Other features can also help, such as posting a photo of your offices or listing a membership with the chamber of commerce.

3. Highlight the expertise in your organization and in the content and services you provide. Do you have experts on your team? Are your contributors or service providers authorities? Be sure to give their credentials. Are you affiliated with a respected organization? Make that clear. Conversely, 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. The first part of this guideline is to show there are real people behind the site and in the organization. Next, find a way 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. A simple way to 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). We find that people quickly evaluate a site by visual design alone. When designing your site, pay attention to layout, typography, images, consistency issues, and more. Of course, not all sites gain credibility by looking like IBM.com. The visual design should match the site’s purpose.

7. Make your site easy to use — and useful. We’re squeezing two guidelines into one here. Our research shows that sites win credibility points by being both easy to use and useful. Some site operators forget about users when they cater to their own company’s ego or try to show the dazzling things they can do with web technology.

8. Update your site’s content often (at least show it’s been reviewed recently). People assign more credibility to sites that show they have been recently updated or reviewed.

9. Use restraint with any promotional content (e.g., ads, offers). If possible, avoid having ads on your site. If you must have ads, clearly distinguish the sponsored content from your own. Avoid pop-up ads, unless you don’t mind annoying users and losing credibility. As for writing style, try to be clear, direct, and sincere.

10. Avoid errors of all types, no matter how small they seem. Typographical errors and broken links hurt a site’s credibility more than most people imagine. It’s also important to keep your site up and running.

So What is Google+?
Here is how Google explains the new service:

We realize that today people are increasingly connecting with one another on the web. But the ways in which we connect online are limited and don’t mimic our real-life relationships. The Google+ project is our attempt to make online sharing even better. We aren’t trying to replace what’s currently available; we just want to introduce a new way to connect online with the people that matter to you.

There are 5 main features to Google+: Circles, Hangouts, Instant Upload, Sparks and Huddle.

Circles
Circles allows you to group friends, family, and various associates into groups and optimizing the flow of information to each one. This is a great way to keep your professional and private life separate and something which Facebook doesn’t easily provide.

Hangouts
Hangouts lets up to 10 users simultaneously video chat with each other face-to-face. This is the coolest feature of the project and it’s what sets Google+ apart from Facebook.

Instant Upload
Easy access to your phone’s photos and ready to share as you want to. While you’re snapping pictures on your phone, Google+ adds your photos to a private album in the cloud.

Sparks
A way to “spark” a conversation. Google+ content based on your interests which you can view at any time and then share with your friends who have the same interests.

Huddle
Huddle is a group text-chat tool within Google+ for having private conversations within a Circle from your iPhone 4.0+ or Android 2.0+.

Plus you still own everything you put on Google+ (unlike Facebook which takes co-ownership”). The Google+ Terms of Service state “You retain copyright and any other rights you already hold in Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services.”

The big news for small businesses is that Brand Pages, like Facebook’s company pages are on the way very soon. And it seems that small businesses will flock to them as they did to Facebook. An added incentive is that they will potentially be integrated with other Google products such as Place Pages, where all Local Small Businesses should have a web presence.

Getting into Google+?
Unless you have already scored yourself an invite, then you’re going to be waiting. Google closed any new sign-ups for invitations as it was overwhelmed with the number of people who had joined already, including Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg.  So for the time being all you can do is sign-up to receive notifications of when new invites will be available. You can do so here.

A Social Media Marketing Study just released found that more than 71.4 percent of small businesses surveyed believe social media is more effective than paid search. Interestingly, only 15 percent of those surveyed found paid search as their most effective means of marketing. SEO or organic search optimization is still high on the list at 57.9%. And Print advertising in newspapers is 20.7% which still beats out Review site sites like Yelp at 10%.

84% of small businesses think that Facebook is the most effective social media channel. Businesses use these social media streams mostly because it saves them money, it’s a fun way to interact with people and because it keeps me top of mind with consumers. Well behind Facebook were Linkedin with 8.3 percent followed by Twitter with 7.6 percent.

Social Media is valuable to small businesses but the biggest downside is still measuring it, and not knowing what content to push out through social media was also a challenge for small businesses. Social media takes time and has its challenges, but it’s very effective if you do it right.

Let’s look at more ways to tap into this market: Things Small Businesses Should Know About Google+ >>