You can think of your company website as the first handshake or impression (in a digital sense) that many of your customers will get. Sure you might do some social networking on Twitter or Facebook, but it’s your website that you’ll be driving those contacts to for more information about your products and services.

But what if your customers don’t like what they see on your website? Or worse, what if they don’t trust your website?

Yesterday, Small Business Trends ran an article on the 11 Reasons Customers Don’t Trust Your Website. The reasons included:

Your website reads like a brochure: Its too technical, not engaging and not conversational.

No one likes spelling mistakes: Typos and bad grammar reflect badly on your company as a whole. Mistakes scream not credible and unprofessional.

No updates in over a decade: I’m exaggerating of course, but if your site isn’t up-to-date with your industry expectations, you’ll appear lazy or out of business.

It’s not user-friendly: Visitors will get frustrated if they can’t find what they’re looking for with ease and they’ll look for products and services somewhere else.

Cut the marketing jargon: Have you every heard of ‘business buzzword bingo’ (or what I like to call bullshit bingo)? Well you’re playing it if you’re using terms like “innovative”, “think outside the box” and “credible service organization” to describe your business.  Your product or service should speak for itself and your language should be clear and conversational (as if you were speaking about your business in person).

There’s no ‘About’ page: The easiest way to gain trust is to let your customers see the person behind the curtain. Tell them a bit about yourself (in a professional sense) and why you’re passionate about your work. This puts a face to your company and adds expertise to your business.

These are just the first 6 reasons why customers may not be positively responding to your website. Read on for the full 11 reasons why your website might not be trusted to find out if your site is guilty of these online boo-boos.