Evidence

Trust & Reputation

Evidence

Why your best reviews are invisible to the customers who need them most.

Do you worry that every person who visits your website thinks you are a liar? This is a question about trust. Trust is hard to build. Trust is easy to lose.

You have a business. You have customers. The customers like your work. The customers write reviews. You have 47 reviews. The reviews are positive. The reviews say you are honest. The reviews say you are fast.

You put the reviews on your website. You think the trust is now on the website. But the trust is not there. The trust is at the bottom of the page. The visitor does not see the bottom of the page.

The visitor stays at the top. The visitor looks at the header. The visitor looks at the menu. The visitor looks at the large photo of a car. Then the visitor leaves. The visitor leaves because the visitor does not know you are honest. The visitor does not know you are fast. The visitor thinks you might be a liar.

01

The Mechanic in Las Vegas

Óscar has an auto repair shop. The shop is in Las Vegas. Óscar fixes cars. He is a good mechanic. He has 47 five-star reviews on the internet. These reviews are important.

A woman named Maria has a car. The car is a sedan. The brakes on the sedan make a high squeak. The noise makes Maria feel unsafe. Maria needs a mechanic.

Maria finds the website for the shop. Maria looks at the screen. Maria sees the name of the shop. Maria sees a photo of a wrench. Maria sees a phone number. Maria does not see the reviews.

The reviews are 2,000 pixels down. Maria does not scroll 2,000 pixels down. Maria looks at the screen for 6 seconds. Maria does not find a reason to stay. Maria closes the website. Maria goes to a different website. Óscar lost a customer. The 47 reviews did not help Óscar. The reviews were in the wrong place.

The Error of Aesthetic Distance

A designer built the website. The designer liked the color blue. The designer liked the white space. The designer put the reviews in the footer. The footer is the last part of the page.

The designer thought the reviews were a decoration. The designer did not think the reviews were a tool. A tool must be where the hand can reach it. Evidence must be where the eye can see it.

This is a common mistake. Many business owners make this mistake. They think having the reviews is enough. They do not think about the placement of the reviews.

The Diver’s Perspective

I work as an aquarium maintenance diver. I dive into large tanks. I clean the glass. I use a scrub brush. I wear a black suit. I wear a mask. When I am in the water, I count the white tiles on the ceiling of the room.

45 visible tiles out of 110. Under the water, the hidden tiles provide no calm.

I count the tiles to keep my breath steady. I count 44 tiles. Then I count 45 tiles. Sometimes I stop at 45. There are 110 tiles on the ceiling. I never see the other 65 tiles. The other 65 tiles do not help me stay calm.

I only use the tiles I can see. A website visitor is like a diver. The visitor only uses the information they can see. If the information is hidden by the depth of the page, the information is useless.

I once missed a spot on the glass because I was looking at a fish. The fish was bright yellow. The yellow was a distraction. A website has distractions. A large photo is a distraction. A long paragraph about history is a distraction. These distractions push the evidence down.

The 86% Problem

A study looked at 100 people. These people looked at websites. 86 out of 100 people spent their time at the top of the page. Only 14 people scrolled to the bottom.

At the Top (Active)

86%

At the Bottom (Lost)

14%

86 people will never see your proof if it is buried.

This means that if you put your best proof at the bottom, 86 people will never see that proof. You are speaking to 14 people. You are losing 86 people. This is a bad way to run a business. You need the 86 people to trust you. You need to move the evidence.

Entrepreneurs need a Página web para empresa. An argument starts with a claim. The claim is that you are a good mechanic.

An argument needs evidence. The evidence is the review from the customer. If you make a claim but wait three minutes to show the evidence, the listener will stop listening. The listener will walk away.

The website visitor walks away in 6 seconds. You must show the evidence in the first 3 seconds. You must put the reviews near the top. You must put the reviews near the buttons.

What Maria Really Wanted

Maria wanted to fix her brakes. Maria wanted to know if Óscar was a good man. Maria did not care about the color blue. Maria did not care about the photo of the wrench. Maria cared about the 47 people who liked the shop.

If Maria saw a review at the top of the page, Maria would have stayed. The review would have said that Óscar is fair. Maria would have clicked the button. Maria would have called the shop. Óscar would have fixed the brakes. The sedan would be safe. This did not happen. The website failed.

The designer made the website as a brochure. A brochure is a piece of paper. A person holds a brochure. A person flips the page of a brochure.

In a conversation, you do not hide your best qualities. You do not wait until the person is leaving to say you are honest. You say you are honest at the start. You show the proof at the start.

717 Design builds websites for people who sell services. They build websites for Hispanic entrepreneurs. They know that trust is the most important thing. They do not treat reviews as decoration. They treat reviews as proof.

Where the Eye Naturally Lands

I count the tiles in the tank. I count 45 tiles. The other tiles are there, but they do not matter to me. Your reviews are there, but they do not matter to the visitor who does not scroll.

You must make the reviews matter. You must move the reviews up. You must put a review under the main title. You must put a review next to the contact form. You must put a review where the eye naturally lands.

The eye lands on the top left. The eye lands on the faces of people. If a review has a photo of a face, the eye will see the review.

Blue vs. Brakes

I like the color blue. Blue is a calm color. But the color blue did not fix the brakes on the sedan. The reviews would have fixed the brakes.

I used to think that a beautiful website was a good website. I was wrong. I have seen beautiful websites that do not make money. I have seen ugly websites that make a lot of money.

The difference is the argument. The difference is the evidence. A beautiful website with hidden reviews is a lie. An ugly website with clear proof is a truth. People buy the truth. People do not buy the color blue.

Art

Art is for looking. It satisfies the designer’s desire for beauty but often leaves the visitor in doubt.

Persuasion

Persuasion is for doing. It moves the reviews to the top where the phone starts to ring.

Óscar looked at his website. He liked the website. He thought the website looked professional. He did not know why the phone did not ring. He did not know that Maria visited the site and left.

He did not know that his 47 reviews were invisible to her. He paid for the website. He paid for the hosting. He paid for the domain name. He was paying for a tool that did not work.

This is a common frustration. A business owner spends money on a website and the website does nothing. The website does nothing because the designer did not understand persuasion. The designer understood art.

A Reason to Trust

You should look at your website now. You should look at the first screen. Do you see proof? Do you see a reason to trust the business?

If you only see a logo and a menu, you are losing people. You are losing the 86 people who do not scroll. You are keeping the 14 people who have nothing else to do.

14 people is not enough to grow a business. You need the 86 people. You need to show the 86 people that you are not a liar. You need to show them the evidence.

I finished cleaning the glass in the tank. I climbed out of the water. I took off my mask. The air was warm. I looked at the ceiling. I saw all 110 tiles. They were all there. But when I was under the water, I only had 45.

Your business is under the water. The visitor is looking through the glass. The visitor is looking through the screen. You must give the visitor the tiles they need to see. You must give them the proof.

Move your reviews. Move them to the top. Do not let the designer hide your honesty. Do not let the layout ruin your reputation. Trust is a physical thing on a screen. It is a group of pixels.

Put the pixels where the eyes are. If you do this, the phone will ring. If you do this, Maria will call. If you do this, the business will grow.

Proof is only proof when it is seen. Evidence is only evidence when it is read. Put your evidence in the light.

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