Trust is important. If a user lands on your website and believes it to be an untrustworthy website, they’re probably not going to spend long browsing your website and services. Instantly, you have lost potential customers and revenue. Working in online recruitment software means that I see lots of different recruitment websites, all offering similar services.  Job offers are a serious business for both clients and candidates and not to be taken lightly. As such, trust is incredibly important within the world of recruitment. Given the nature of the industry, it’s important to build trust through your website to stand head and shoulders above the rest.

So how DO you build trust through your website? Colleen tells us three ways you can start today…

1. Display social proof

In SEO link building, the more links you have on your website, the more popular you become. The same can be said for social proof.

If your website displays high numbers of people enjoying your work– psychologically other visitors will assume that you are liked and are more likely to join them.

On your website, you can display numbers of Facebook likes or group members, Twitter, Pinterest or Instagram followers.

There are also other ways of displaying social proof that you might not think of.

• Do you know a celebrity? Get them to talk about your website and services.
• Highlight press mentions – did you feature in a newspaper or magazine?
• Display reviews on your website. Include a star rating that shows off how great you are.
• Show your most popular content by looking at Google Analytics and finding out what blogs perform well.
• Boast about how many newsletter subscribers you have. Over 200,000 newsletter subscribers can’t possibly be wrong, can they?

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Social proof is a great way to give the impression of trust. Work it into your page design and help web visitors to feel confident in what you offer.

2. Show the ‘real’ you through images to help build trust through your website

In some cases, this may not be appropriate, but where you can, why not use real images on your website?

Corporate, stock images of colleagues laughing in board meetings or pointing at computer screens can come across as disingenuous and run-of-the-mill.

Instead, embrace realistic pictures of your work environment. Be playful and display a bit of personality on your website and blog to help build trust.

This can include:

• Charity events
• Team page photos
• Company news
• Achievements – work-related or personal
• Industry awards
• Seasonal events
• Days of the year

Obviously, there’s no need to share mundane images, like Monday board meeting catch-ups or a newly decorated office toilet. Instead focus on things would be of interest to people naturally, like Bring Your Kids To Work Day, snaps from the Christmas party or a video of the new office puppy.

There’s no need to panic if you can’t locate a Digital SLR camera. Most mobile phone cameras are good enough and give a realistic portrayal of the situation.

Showing the real human faces of those that work in your company will show you’re genuine. You can highlight what makes you different from competitors through images.

Which leads me to my next point…

3. Be clear and honest with your copy

Now that your images are real and you’ve shouted about your social stats, it’s time to make sure that your words are helping to build trust in your organisation too.

Cut out the jargon and speak like a real person. If you’re too serious and drop in terms that most visitors wouldn’t know about, your website won’t be relatable.

Instead, be clear – get to the point. Tell your web visitors in simple terms why you’re the business for them.

The text on your homepage above the fold needs to be clear and honest. After all – you only have 50 milliseconds to make a good first impression.

The About page should tell a story – why did you start the company? Did you find a gap in the market?

The Team page can include snippets of information on each member.

If your founders or prominent members of the company are comfortable with the spotlight, get them talking. Set them up with a Twitter, a YouTube channel, an Instagram profile.

If they are comfortable discussing the business, talking about themselves and sharing their expert opinions – they will come across as genuine, as trustworthy and will help build confidence in the brand.

In summary, when building up trust through your website, it’s important to look at where you can provide social proof, genuine images, and clear, honest copy. All three of these trust-building factors are relatively easy to address and change where necessary.

I hope that you’ve enjoyed learning about the different ways you can build trust through your website. If you would like to find out more about Chameleon-i recruitment software, please contact me at colleen@chameleoni.com and I’d be happy to answer any questions.