Credibility

There are some things that a small business web site should have to establish credibility and not look stupid. You should make it easy for people to contact you. Yes, even your phone number. Being able to call up and get a real person, even if all you can say is “Sorry, I’m busy right now, but I’ll get back to you” really means a lot to your customers.

Having your physical address really helps also. If you want to go all out, put on a photo of your shop if you have one. I’ll be very confident if I can see that someone has a real shop that way. Of course, you could go to Flickr or Google Images and find some slick office building and call it your World Headquarters, but, well, that would be stupid. If you want people to trust you and come back for more, don’t lie to them. Didn’t you learn that in third grade?