Before I looked into the topic, I just thought credibility was about being plausible. Would users come to my websites and think the information on them was legitimate? I’m not far off, but credibility is a complex beast that does not need to rely on intuition alone. I found three studies (sources and links at the end of the post) that discussed what is credibility, why is credibility important, what affects credibility and by how much. Wait a second—by how much? That’s right! A website’s credibility and the items affecting it can actually be measured, and this means you can rely on scientific data over your intuition.

What is credibility?
Credibility is a perceived feeling by a user towards a website. Credibility is the combined perception of trustworthiness and expertise. There are other areas of credibility but trustworthiness and expertise are the major identified aspects in credibility research.

Do you trust the information as dependable? (Trustworthiness)
Do you accept it as true? (Expertise)
Do you believe it as true? (Perception)
All signs point to credibility.

Study #2 [What] and #3 [Stanford] used the data of about 1,400 web users, Americans and Finns, to compile a credibility chart with varying variables that affect credibility positively and negatively. Before I get into the chart, here’s a little more about the demographics:

1. The median age was 33 years
2. 44% were female, 56% were male
3. 42% were Americans, 58% were Finns
4. Average education level was “some university”
5. Mean income was $31,459
6. Mean years on the Internet: 3.7 years
7. Mean number of purchases online: 1 to 5 purchases
8. Mean number of hours spent online in a week: 13.9 hours/week

Here’s the chart:

And here are some highlights [Stanford 8]: (because you probably can’t read that image)

Take note of the actions that positively influence credibility in the greatest amount—look familiar? They should, they are all things you would be doing if your website was a brick and mortar store:

• Quick customer service
• Physical address and phone number listed, e-mail provided
• Site (store) arranged in a way that makes sense. (I promise you, grocery stores put a lot of thought into layout to make you buy more. They really direct how you move—produce first, bakery, meats, winding through each aisle, then to the dairy and frozen stuff. Navigate your users online too!)
• Professional design
• Recommended by a friend or news media outlet
• Emails confirming transactions aka receipts

People are already familiar with shopping. Our entire culture is based on consuming. There are many subliminal messages involved in shopping, so don’t forget to shift those attributes to your online store to increase its credibility.

Also notice how many of the top items (1.0 and above) reflect truthiness (yeah, it’s a word) and expertise—the two defining principles of credibility—such as location, phone numbers, contact information, receipts, information backed up by sources, being regularly updated, etc. These items all seem to be void of bias, untruths, and agenda. Or rather, these items are informational not selling points. And because they’re not selling points—like free shipping with its questionable asterisk, or a live chat representative who we can only assume is a salesperson—they get overlooked when creating an online store.

In fact, having a commercial purpose brings down your credibility (-.3) [8]! The minute you say you are selling something or promoting something, people think negatively. Understanding this is very important, because it’s going to influence how you choose to persuade your visitors.

Most of the things that lower credibility make sense. (Pop-ups? Of course that’s a negative.)What is surprising is the degree to which they negatively impact the user’s perception. Sure, a broken link is a -1.4, but a typographical error (e.g. a spelling mistake) is -1.3 [8]. Wow. I mean have you combed through every page of your site to check for teh instead of the?

Study #3 [Stanford] recommended six design implications based on the study:

1. Add value to each web visit [13] – First and foremost, it’s about customer service. Sometimes, when people focus on the user experience, they get wrapped up in all the flashing and blinking things the web can do that they forget the basics such as quick customer responses, consistently updated content, contact information, search capabilities, etc.

2. Guard the integrity of your content [13] – The big failure here were sites that didn’t separate their editorial content from the look of the ads. Trying to trick your users, or allowing your advertisers to try to trick your user, is definitely going to push your site down the scale. On the upside, people “accept commercialization to an extent” and that well done banner ads can even enhance perceived credibility [What 67].

3. Make it simple to get around [Stanford 14] – Ease of use is extremely important in credibility (+1.5). Research shows credibility increases in three user situations: when the user is trying to orient himself or navigate, when the user is attempting to solve a problem he couldn’t and when the user has a strong need for information [Elements 82]. Building a website that is easy to navigate helps solve all three of these user situations, no wonder it’s so important. Plan your site map and then have other people check it, then make up some scenarios and see if it works.

4. Appearances matter [Stanford 14] – There are many aspects to this recommendation. Your website should look good and up-to-date. Spelling and grammatical mistakes are a big no-no. And your URL domain name should include the company name, and no third party hosting (i.e. don’t put your company website at AOL or Geocities or the like—I hope that’s a no brainer.)

5. Make sure everything works [14] – Page loading time and broken links also influence a user’s perception of credibility. Again, imagine going to a store and your desired product is nowhere to be found, you search everywhere and it’s just not around. That’s essentially the same as going to a web page and getting a 404 error.

6. Watch your reputation and affiliations [14] – Public Relations 101 says associations have a lot of impact on your company’s credibility. Try to control them as best you can. Don’t link to a site that doesn’t seem credible, it reflects badly on you (why link to Wikipedia, if you can link to the NY Times?) Don’t publicize any financial or legal troubles—keep that Facebook status professional and positive.

Study #2 [What] addressed the credibility scores by demographic. For example: The youngest third in the study (age < 27.9 years) were more critical of amateurism than the oldest third of the sample [65]; and while you might think that people with more web experience would view website credibility differently than people with little web experience but all statistical different were negligible [66]. I don’t want to cover everything, because who knows what’s applicable to whom, so if you want to read more about credibility based on demographic, here’s that study [PDF].

One final thing to point out, regaining credibility is difficult. And there are two ways to go about, first, provide correct information over time; and second, by committing the same error repeatedly so that the user learns to anticipate and compensate for the error [Elements 82]. Really?! Consider the use of the “Please do not hit your back button” or “Using the back button will result in multiple payments” messages on checkout pages. Really this is a development/security error, but users have become so familiar with it, that it no longer takes away from a site’s credibility. But the best way to regain credibility is to go over the credibility chart and do your best not to lose it in the first place.

Sources:
#1: Fogg, BJ and Hsiang Tseng. “The Elements of Computer Credibility.” CHI 99. 15-20 May 1999: 80-87. [PDF]

#2: Fogg, B.J., Marshall, J., Laraki, O., Osipovich, A., Varma, C., Fang, N., Paul, J., Rangnekar, A., Shon, J., Swani, P., Trinen, M. “What Makes Web Sites Credible? A Report on a Large Quantitative Study.” CHI 2001. Vol. 3, Issue 1. 31 Mar – 5 Apr: 61-68. [PDF]

#3: Fogg, B.J., Kameda, T., Boyd, J., Marshall, J., Sethi, R., Sockol, M., Trowbridge, T. (2002). Stanford-Makovsky Web Credibility Study 2002: Investigating what makes Web sites credible today. A Research Report by the Stanford Persuasive Technology Lab in collaboration with Makovsky & Company. Stanford University. 2002: 8-15. [PDF]