Why Honesty on your website Really is The Best Policy

Nov 2, 2015 | Business Tips

Reading Time: 3 minutes
Kevin Fouche

Why Honesty on your website Really is The Best Policy

Posted by Kevin Fouche, Pixel Fish Director

Kevin handles the planning, design, launch and training of every website that Pixel Fish creates. He ensures that every website is highly engaging and aligned with our client’s goals. With over 20 years of design and web industry experience to draw upon, Kevin aims to pass on his knowledge to our clients and like-minded businesses wanting to grow their online presence.

Many businesses don’t give much information about how they work on their websites. This is largely because they’re afraid that their competitors will find out their secrets and steal them. So they shy away from ‘putting themselves out there’ online. Let’s explore Honesty on your website.

However, this policy is likely to backfire because of the effect it has on potential customers.

People can sense when someone isn’t telling them everything.  And they might wrongly assume that this is being done because the business is shady.  This is the main reason Why Honesty on your website Really is The Best Policy.

Trustworthy Websites

There are certain websites that have gained a reputation for trust and honesty.  For example, most people trust the information they get on the New York Times website.  WebMD is another good example of a website that people trust when it comes to medical and health-related information.  Huffington Post is yet another website that people often go to for news, entertainment and how-to articles.  What differentiates these websites from the ones we don’t trust?

Untrustworthy Websites

There are certain websites which have garnered a bad reputation even though they’re really popular.  Wikipedia is a good example of this.  We often go to Wikipedia to get information about various things.  However, most of us take what we read with a grain of salt because we’ve heard that Wikipedia doesn’t always get things right.

Irrelevant Information

A key difference between trustworthy and untrustworthy websites is that the former don’t contain irrelevant information. There are times when you’ll see that Wikipedia contains quite a bit of unnecessary information. When reading about a movie, for example, you’ll get the entire plot through Wikipedia. Each and every scene will be completely described.

Most of us aren’t looking for this type of blow-by-blow description. So we prefer to go to IMDB which has a better reputation. The plot summaries there are short and succinct. They may not try to give us too much information at one go but we know that everything that we read is going to be true.

What to Leave Out: Jargon and Sales Pitches

When you set up a website, it’s a good idea to try to be brief and leave out extraneous information.  Just imagine yourself to be in your reader’s position.  What type of information do you think they are looking for?  Give them that information without trying to sound smart or sell anything.  These are two things that really get in the way of building a good reputation.  No one wants to read jargon or be told in several different ways that your product is the absolute best one they could possibly buy.

What to Include: Specs, Quality and Product Comparisons

What potential customers need when they come to your website are cold, hard facts: what the exact specifications of your product are, how it’s going to help them and how it compares to other similar products on the market in terms of quality, performance and price.  Most businesses might hesitate to give so much information about their product at one go but this is really the best way to go about things.

Certain customers will leave your web page and go somewhere else because they’ll find that your product doesn’t suit them.  However, this is eventually going to be for the best.  You don’t want a bunch of disgruntled customers coming back and telling you how they thought that you were selling something entirely different.  This is only going to harm your company in the long run.

Transparency at Pixel Fish

Here are Pixel Fish, we believe in the same type of transparency.  You’ll know at one glance whether our services are going to be right for you or not.  You’ll see what we’re able to give you.  You’ll also see how much we charge and whether or not we’re going to fit into your budget.  We practice what we preach.  And if you give us a chance, we can tweak your digital marketing strategy to make it honest yet effective.

Contact us for more information.

Further Information
How To Handle A Bad Google Review
Top Small Business CRMs to Consider for Your Website
Top 5 reasons to create a Website CRM Integration
Hashtag Strategies That Will Work for Your Business
What are Image Alt Tags and How Do They Affect Your SEO?

Stand out from your competition with a Pixel Fish website!

Contact us today on 02 9114 9813 or email info@pixelfish.com.au

Small Business Website Packages   | Custom Website Design   |   Ecommerce Websites

Related Blogs

Contact Pixel Fish - Website Design Agency

Get Started with a new Pixel Fish Website

We would love to hear about your upcoming website project

Kevin Fouché, Pixel Fish Director