How to Ensure Great First Impressions on a Website for Your Business: Facts and Analysis

There is no secret: first impressions significantly impact your customers from the moment they reach your website. This means you must ensure that your website provides a positive first impression using past awards, customer reviews, and even the layout of your content.

To guarantee a positive first impression, you’ll need to make sure your website is well-designed in a way that builds trust and provides your customers with the information they need to continue towards a conversion. Let’s take a look at some ways you can guarantee your website makes a stellar first impression.

5 Ways To Make Good Impressions on a Website of Your Company’s Site

In today’s market, your customers will do extensive online research before completing a purchase. This means your customers have more information than ever before, so they’ll have lots of options. A few questions that your audience will ask when they land on your website include:

• Is this company professional?
• Is this website trustworthy?
• Am I in the right place to get what I want?
• Can I rely on this company?

Between web design, strategic placement of information, and positive imagery, there are several ways to ensure your website makes a positive first impression. It’s best to do everything you can to gain the trust of your customers right away so you can build a relationship with them and guide them down the path towards a sale or conversion. 

Let’s take a look at five ways you can improve the first impression your customers get when they reach your site today!

1. Ensure Your Content Is Easy To Navigate & Relevant To Their Needs

Once people land on your website, you’ll want them to be able to find what they are looking for and invest in your products or services as quickly as possible. 

That means you’ll need to ensure that the customer knows exactly what to do to take the next step with your company. 

There are many ways to improve navigation across your site, so here are a few ways to help your customers get to the correct information as quickly as possible:

• Create a sophisticated search tool that will take them to the exact products or services they need.
• Highlight your contact options so people can quickly get in touch with questions or concerns.
• Design an easy-to-use navigation menu that will help users find what they need without any hassle
• Provide a clear call-to-action that tells website visitors what to do and where to go next

Providing a positive user experience will show that you respect your customers’ time and make the sales process as seamless as possible. Each step should be obvious and convenient.

2. Display Positive Reviews From Past Customers

Since you want to build a positive relationship with your customers as quickly as possible, you can place positive customer reviews throughout your site to earn their trust. An excellent way to make a lasting impression is to show that people love your products and services so much that they leave positive reviews on your site.

Suppose you’ve received positive reviews or testimonials from past customers. In that case, you should display these prominently on your homepage, product, and service pages to enhance the user experience and provide a great first impression.

They will serve as concrete proof that you are great at what you do and those customers can trust your company. There are several key places you can display reviews based on your business goals. For instance, you could:

• List some in the sidebar on your ‘about us’ page
• Highlight one stellar review each week in your header
• Use a carousel to showcase 5-9 of your best reviews
• Create a testimonial gallery page

You’ll also want to ensure the reviews you display make sense for your brand. For example, a product-based business can use a star rating system to make it easy for customers to compare similar items. Meanwhile, service-based companies may want to use longer testimonials that give context to what they do. 

It’s easy to gather these essential reviews. Consider posting a survey link on social media, running a contest, or designing a structured process for obtaining feedback about your services or products to gather lots of great reviews for your products and services.

FreshBooks, a leading account software program provider, highlights customer reviews right on their product landing page. Not only do they provide an average star rating and link to more than 3,000 reviews, but they also provide a testimonial video that shows real people praising their product. Including customer reviews is important because FreshBooks needs to gain the trust of potential customers to overcome initial concerns that accounting software is difficult to use.

And notice that they don’t hide their negative reviews away. Bad reviews serve a purpose in building trust. Not only does addressing negative reviews build credibility with your audience but it also shows you are committed to improving your product or service.

FreshBooks does a great job of using customer testimonials and reviews to prove the value of their product, and highlight how easy it is to use. Be sure to take a similar approach as you build your website to make a great first impression with your audience.

3. Highlight Relevant Awards Or Qualifications

Customers want to know that they are working with the best. And there is no better way to prove that your business is the top choice than displaying your qualifications and any awards you’ve earned. 

Accolades and qualifications provide concrete evidence that you are skilled and able to offer excellent results. Showcasing them on your homepage is great for building credibility and earning trust. In turn, this will help you make more sales. 

Here are some ways you can display your awards and qualifications:

• Create an awards and qualification timeline: A visual timeline works well if your company has a history of winning awards and earning qualifications. 
• Mention them on social media: Highlight your achievements on your social media pages to keep customers updated. Don’t forget to link to the relevant pages on your website, too! 
• Blog about it: Write a blog post about earning your qualifications or winning an award.
• Dedicate space to a virtual trophy case: Put pictures of physical awards and digital award stamps in a virtual trophy case, much like you would in a guest waiting area.

Be sure to display relevant accolades in multiple areas of your website. Choose recognizable awards and qualifications that prove you are good at what you do, and make sure they’re as relevant as possible to the work you do today.

4. Use Strong Imagery That Shows Your Business In The Best Light

Using strong images across your site can help customers feel more connected to your brand, get them excited about your products, and guide them towards making a purchasing decision.

On your website, you’ll want to use compelling imagery that shows your business in the best light possible. This means choosing images that reflect the message you are trying to communicate, and here are a few ideas to help you use imagery across your site:

• Use product imagery that shows how items work
• Use images of your staff members to humanize your business
• Create illustrations or diagrams that help customers to understand what you do
• Showcase imagery of people who represent your customers to make them feel welcome 

Think about your target audience and choose images that represent them. Models should reflect the age, background, and values of your customers, for instance.

5. Always Highlight What Separates You From The Competition 

You want to give off a positive first impression to encourage website visitors to shop with you rather than your competitors. 

So, it would help if you focused on highlighting what helps you stand out from the crowd on your website. This will give people the best possible impression of your company. 

This could involve you: 

• Showcasing your USPS
• Offering sample case studies about your services
• Demonstrating what kinds of results you’ve gotten for past customers
• Highlighting a unique promotion 

Using these tactics will really grab people’s attention and greatly increase the chances of them eventually converting.

Take Steps To Ensure Your Company’s Website Makes A Positive First Impression

First impressions are lasting. Additionally, your customers will likely interact with your website before they make contact with you. This means they will be deciding whether or not to take action as they scroll through your site. If your website looks legit and visually pleasing, potential customers are more likely to take the next step with you. 
Like what you read today? Check out HasThemes’ blog for more tips and tricks to bring your eCommerce website to the next level.

Note: This informative post has been written with the collaboration of some talented people from the Loganix team.