If content is king, credibility is queen!

I was cooking around some marketing ideas on the weekend. Pinging them back and forth and have coined a new phrase.

"If content is king, credibility is queen!"

What does it mean for your website?

When Bill Gates pitched up content being king everyone jumped on this little blue and white windows wagon and puffed out so much content that no one can manage the sheer volume of it anymore. So Google came along and helped everyone by making it easy to search through the content. Now I do a lot of searching and I am sure you do too. Do you just hate it when you come to a page from Google and the content is just a dog. And the pages with all the popups are dogs with fleas. That is the cyber waste of content being king. The one thing those sites are missing is credibility. I wouldnt touch those popup infested, banner ad flashing websites with a ten foot clown pole.

5 ways to build your website credibility

1. Clear contact us details - Have a easy to navigate clear contact details. Every single detail you have to contact you. Street address, phone, fax, email, Locked bag, dogs kennel address, office former address. If you are a real business I want to know where you are so if I get in trouble I am going to go to it and talk to you.

2. Pictures and believable about us content - You About us page needs to be credible. Have a picture of your office. A picture of your CEO. Some revealing information about your business like where you started and how the idea of the business was originated. Stories are the key.

3. Testimonials with links to real business websites - The key here is the website where the testimonial comes from. If it is possible to verify that person is at that business from the website (e.g. A photo of them is on the website) then it will be even more credible!

4. Third party endorsements and logos - If a third party endorses you with their logo this means that someone else apart from a dodgy self written testimonials likes your business! I like the way Newegg have done their 3rd party endorsements www.newegg.com (Look at the bottom). Note Newegg are the 9th biggest internet retailer in the United States with around $500,000,000 of sales in 2005. Not bad for a couple of third party endorsements.

5. Reviews and comments - Real live people making comments and reviewing content or products makes for a believable website. Amazon and Ebay have built their business from trust networks with these 2 simple mechanisms. Reviews of products on Amazon and comments on sellers and buyers in Ebay.

Google has become concerned with their credibility with some of their adwords. The pages that the ads point to have become quite ridiculous and they are starting to stamp this out and improve their credibility.

What else do you use to build trust and credibility?