Businesses
The Site Assurance automated site inspection service "crawls" your web site looking for specific elements. These elements are used in determining your site assurance score based upon the type of site you run. We look for elements in the following areas; Authentication, Privacy, Customer Service, Intuitive Commerce and Longevity.Boost Your Sales by Boosting Customer Confidence!
Facts About Third-Party Seals for Site Owners
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Harris survey in 2002 shows that 83% of people asked will stop doing business with a perceived privacy abuser.
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Bizrate consumer survey in 2003 shows that 36% of people asked say the presence of a third party seal increases trust in a website when they do not take the time to read a privacy statement.
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Almost 70% of people asked in a Microsoft survey say that the presence of a 3rd party seal increases belief in industry leadership.
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Site Authentication
We utilize proprietary software that generates a Site Assurance SmartIcon on your home page. This software when clicked grabs the origination URL and sends it to our SmartIcon processing software. We then look up your certificate information and display the results for your site visitor to review. If the origination URL is not found in our system then a warning is displayed to the end user. This helps to prevent site "spoofing" (where a third-party creates a fake replica of your site in order to steal sales and more than likely steal from your potential clients). Additionally, we take a snap shot of your web site and display it on your report so that site visitors can compare it to the current site. This visual inspection by the site visitor increases the likelihood of an authentic site.
Privacy
Every site today, regardless of their purpose should have a Privacy Policy in place. This protects the site owner as well as reassures and informs the site visitor of a site owners intentions if private data is collected from the site visitor.
Customer Service
Customer Service, Support, Help, Client Services options are critical for Commerce Sites and encouraged for all web sites. This could be as simple as a "Contact Us" link or sophisticated as a issue tracking system and knowledgebase. This not only reassures your site visitors that they will be able to reach you if they encounter a problem but also serves to instill in your customers that you want to be reach and that you care.
Intuitive Commerce
If you sell a product or service online you should enable your site visitors to intuitively and immediately learn about your commerce and shipping (if applicable) activities directly off your home page. This can be as simple as providing a link to your shipping policies or a direct link to a site visitors' shopping cart or an order form.
Longevity
General this indicates that a site has had a presence online long enough to gain listings in major search engines. This lets your site visitors know that your site is not going to disappear overnight. This is an important factor as new sites are put up and taken down regularly. Reassurance that your site has existed for a period of time allows them to feel more confident in doing business with you.
Preparation for Inspection
Before you run your initial certification test be certain to address the following issues:
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Verify that you have a privacy policy in place and that you link to it from your main web page. This should be verbose and easy to locate ideally using the term "Privacy Policy" or "Privacy" as the hyperlink.
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Be sure to utilize a link popularity service such as eLinking.com to get listed at the 6 major search engines that we test for. This may take a few weeks or more to complete.
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Be sure that you provide site visitors with an easily identifiable method for requesting support or help. This can either be via email, online form or telephone but this must be verbose and ideally using the terms "Help", "Support", "Client Service", etc.
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If you run an commerce site you should provide your visitors with an easily recognizable means to order your product or service and learn about shipping policies, if any, on your main page "home page". This should be verbose and ideally use the terms "Shop", "Order", "Shipping", "Buy", etc.