Create Credibility with Your Site Visitors by Having a Clear Privacy Statement
Privacy is very important, especially when it comes to your site visitors. No matter what kind of business you’re in, online or off, you need to have a privacy policy clearly stated for everyone to see.
Having a clear and solid privacy policy is even more important if you have an online business. Trust is a huge issue with many people, and who can blame them? A lot of times you don’t know the face behind a website or have any sort of relationship with the site owner.
Why should you trust them? Why should you give them your name and email address or any other personal information?
Personally, unless a website has a clearly stated privace policy, I would be very weary about handing any personal information over. It is just too hard to trust people these days… sad but true.
If you have a policy statement… great! If not, there is a cool website that will automatically generate one for you. All you do is answer the questions on the form, hit “Generate Policy” and that’s it!
http://www.freeprivacypolicy.com
It doesn’t get any easier than that. So, if you don’t yet have a privacy policy setup for your website, I suggest you go to the website above and get one now. Afterwards, post it on your site for all your site visitors to see.
*Tip*
Put a link to your privacy statement near your opt-in form. This will help boost credibility and sign-up rates.
Tags: business trust, Credibility, privacy policy, privacy statement
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Tagged with: business trust • Credibility • privacy policy • privacy statement
Filed under: Credibility • Internet Marketing • online business • Privacy • Resources • Useful Websites
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Alan that is awesome. Anything to do with credibility and integrity is a real plus. Thanks and this will be a great tool.
Leon Bowes
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I am glad that I stopped by and took a minute to read this. It gives me a chance to stop for a minute and reflect on my own endeavors and how to apply this information.
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Privacy policy is a must and even then I am still apprehensive about filling forms out, trust has to be there.
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Twitter: AMater
says:
@Steve – Quite right. Trust is a big issue, especially online. It’s a lot harder to get website visitors to trust you when all they see is your picture and name (if even that sometimes).
I think this is why videos are so important nowadays because it creates the same feeling as having a face-to-face with someone.
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Hi, Alan:
Thank you for this informative and inspirational post! And thanks for that resource link – I’ve bookmarked it for future reference.
GT Bulmer
StarrBizz.com
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Thanks for the privacy policy generator link. This will be a very useful tool to have.
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Alan Mater
Twitter: AMater
@Ben@Banner Stands, Welcome to the community, Ben! I hope to see you here more often.
You’re quite welcome, and I’m glad that you found it useful.
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Hi alan, Thanks for clear the concept of our privacy policy. Privacy is a main thing in our online or off-line business because trust is required in every business.
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Alan Mater
Twitter: AMater
@dvi-kabel, Glad you liked it.
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I will need this tool when I start my business, btw by accepting a Privacy Policy do we get legally-bound to respect their privacy? It’s just a general question and I respect privacy because I also hate spam and don’t want my personal information to be shared with the world without my consent.
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Alan Mater
Twitter: AMater
@Bill@Las Colinas Real Estate, Hi Bill, thanks for visiting my blog and taking the time to comment. I appreciate it.
If you have access to IP addresses through your host stats, gather names and email addresses, etc., then yes, you would want to honor your policy. It wouldn’t be good practice not to.
Most privacy policies cover these areas plus additional issues such as cookie tracking, which is handled by web browsers. Some websites use cookies for various reasons, so if you do use them, you want your visitors to know why and what they’re for.
This would just be a small example. Other issues may involve payment processing if you have an ecommerce site, secure login, etc.
Regardless of what your site is and what information you collect, it’s important to have a privacy policy in place and adhere to it.
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I still find it amazing as to how many websites still dont use a privacy policy or user agreement on their site. Thanks for the privacy policy site maker.
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Alan Mater
Twitter: AMater
@Jim@quality backlinks, Welcome to my blog.
You’re welcome… I hope you find it useful. Websites that don’t have a privacy policy or other important documents are only hurting themselves. They will easily become a target for investigations.
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Hey thanks for providing the link for generating a privacy policy. I will try generating one, as i don’t have one on my website and see whether it goes with my site or not. Thanks for sharing. Good luck for your future blogs
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Alan Mater
Twitter: AMater
@Ranjit@website developers,
Great… glad you found this helpful. A privacy policy is a must for every website.
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Twitter: jessicathompson
says:
Web credibility is an issue because internet is full of scammers. I would say trust comes from meeting and beating the customer’s expectation.
.-= Outsource SEO´s last blog ..The Main Reasons Why Companies Should Look for SEO Outsourcing =-.
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Alan Mater
Twitter: AMater
@Grace,
Yes, meeting and exceeding a customer’s expectations will surely gain credibility and trust. Thanks for the input.
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Privacy policy is required by Google AdSense, so yeah, its a must.
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