Most webmasters think it can not be so difficult to create a web web site that has excellent credibility and trust with search engines and users. One important factor in the quest for credibility is the website design. Does the design create a sense of trust or does it create a sense that the owner of the website is not serious about their site? The design of the site is actually a great selling point of what is one the site. If you have not thought of that before, you really should.

The next factor is usability, is your site easy to use?  Can you navigate smoothly or do you have to hit millions of other buttons in order to get to where you are going? Are the ads on the site confusing you as a user? Do the ads blend in or do they jump out at you? Do your ads convey more importance than your content?

Critical Information

Do your articles have the dates and have the names of the publishers on them? Most often people are looking to get cited for their content and that is a great way to do so. Does your site have an about section or a brick and mortar address attached to it? This makes the site more authentic if people can see there is a way to get a hold of you. The age of the company should be listed in the About Us section as well; it shows longevity and less of a fly by night web site. People want to see that the sites they are visiting are actual sites and have some type of organization attached to it rather than believe that there are people sitting a basement coming up with this stuff.

Background Information

A great way to attach credibility to your site is if the URL describes what the website is offering. Is your site hosted by a business name or by a third party URL.  Make sure that the URL’s are very descriptive and more memorable to the users. If your site offers some free and informative information, try to separate your information from that of others that cater to the same traffic. Make sure you can answer the question of what makes your site better for information than the other sites?  Another quick tip, make sure that you use hyperlinks; they actually help out a lot with site credibility.

Availability And User Interaction

Is there enough exposure on your site to create positive experience for your users? Is your site the type of site that others will recommend to their friends and family? If you can get media members to your site, it would make credibility all too real.

When it comes to authority on a web site, it is not something you take but it is something that is given to you. By getting your site listed as an authority, it makes it easier to get your other content listed as an authority as well. It does take a long time to get recognized as an authority on a subject. To appear credible you must know exactly what you are talking about, no guessing just the facts. This is important because you are working on a network that has no respect for copyrights and webmasters will just as soon as steal your content. By creating an authority, it will penalize the person’s site who stole the content because the search engines will recognize you as the authority.
 
Tips To Improve Your Web Sites Credibility
 
I do not know how it is with you but I do not like to visit websites that look ugly, are full of advertisings and lack good information. It seems to me as if I know how to build a good and credible web site. Unfortunately I am lazy and sometimes I do not have the time to think of everything. That is why I made a little checklist, for me and for you. I collected some good tips that every webmaster can use to improve web site credibility:

• Set up an About page so people can find out who they are dealing with.
• Use pictures of people that really work in your company. If you are a blogger, add an avatar to your profile.
• Set up a contact page with all the information you would like to see on other people`s web sites,  too. Do not forget a physical address. Nothing is more suspicious than a P.O box in Guatemala.
• Respond quickly to customer requests, comments on your blog or trackbacks
• Name references if you can. Let your work speak for itself.
• Update your web site on a regular basis and give people a date to show them when it was updated the last time. Transparency creates trust and credibility.
• Invite guest authors, this also shows that you are an activist and that not only you care for your website.
• Do not post too many advertisements on your websites. If you want to gain credibility this is mendatory.
• Link only to trustworthy, quality websites.
• Prevent bad user experiences. Even if you have one, nobody likes to browse 404 error pages.
• Write like a real person, add an opinion or persective to your content.
• Design your website well. Nobody likes confusing colors and a bad structure. Ask a webdesigner to help you if you cannot do it yourself.
• Care for correct grammar and spelling.
• If you run a forum, blog or any other kind of website where you store users information you have to care for their privacy. Set up a privacy policy and let users know what happens with the information they give you.

 
Background Information
 
Back in 2002, Stanford University did a study on web site credibility and then in Jan 2006 a book was published called Beyond Algorithms: A Librarian’s Guide to Finding Web Sites that you can Trust. There are previous studies on the topic still available at webcredibility.org. You can find the Stanford Guidelines for Web Credibility here.