Have You Ever Thought About What Keeps You Interested in A Website You Are Browsing?

Put in another way, what content really helps to sell you on a provider or seller’s quality?

For me, a big factor in what makes me go from a browser to a buyer is an indication that a company has not only worked with but satisfied and even impressed other clients with circumstances similar to mine.

As we’ve discussed in multiple previous blog posts, when a prospective customer visits your homepage, you’ve got a very brief window in which to catch a viewer's attention and demonstrate your value and relevance to their needs.

An excellent way to slip under their radar and still achieve this goal is by displaying well crafted customer testimonials.

Just note that in order for this technique to be effective you need to know not only how to obtain them but how to write and visually display them.

Testimonials are a device that each member of our team makes sure to recommend to our web design and even our SEO clients (because if people stay on your site longer, then your rankings go up), and that I employ myself as they not only tell users that you’re good, they explain why.

Any business can claim that their own business is the best at what it does, but seeing why its clients agree shows tested and more believable credibility.

It is important to show that your testimonials come from real people, so obviously don’t fabricate them (it's possibly even illegal now to post fake testimonials). Instead, you can ask clients to offer feedback on their experiences working with you, just be certain to get their permission to display what they write as well as their personal information.

An effective testimonial will include a person’s first and last name and their city and state, offering basic evidence he or she is a real person working at a real business. Ideally, they should include the person’s professional title or certification, which will lend distinct authority to their voice.

If their own businesses are relevant to yours you can even include a link to their website, once again affording you both a networking and link-building opportunity.

Now here's the key: Display the testimonials prominently on your homepage, next to your opt-in form or similar call to action if you can.

Remember to put yourself in the shoes of your user and use testimonials that are informative and readable. They should be succinct because no matter how good you are, few users will read a page-and-a-half explanation of why.

Stick to a neat one to two-paragraph maximum.

Also, prioritize the ones highlighting specific benefits and features of your services and why they make you the best over well-meaning but vague submissions:

“I highly recommend Jason’s web design and SEO blog for keeping up with current and practical online marketing strategies. Since we started actively updating our blog and cross-promoting it through social media sites as his posts suggested, we have moved onto the first page of Google.” - Great

“Subscribe to Jason’s blog on LA Dezign because it’s awesome!” = Not so much a good testimonial.