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Three seconds. That’s all the time a potential customer needs to determine if they believe your company to be legitimate when searching online.

A quick story can highlight this point. A potential customer is looking to purchase a new shirt for a concert they are going to attend. The customer types “casual button down short sleeve shirt” into Google, and clicks on the Search button. Up comes a listing of relevant sites that may provide this customer what they need. One of the links is to Jackson’s, and he finds the shirt he is looking for. The Jackson’s site is laid out for the convenience of the customer, has a ton if product information, and gives the customer a variety of associated clothing pieces that may fit well into his wardrobe for the concert that night. Well done Jackson’s.

This shopper continues to look at a site they heard about somewhere called Peter’s Closet (this is just a fashion site I made up). Within three seconds, the shopper notices that Peter’s Closet is poorly designed, it has not been updated in a few years, and some of the products listed do not even have links to let the customer learn more. Rather than spend more time on this poorly designed website, the customer decides to look elsewhere. The poor design of the website and the lack of frequent updates leads this customer to question whether they want to shop on this site and if the company is even legitimately still in business.

The shopper has an idea and types into Google “shirts for less” (another made up company) and there is a link to a company by that exact name. He clicks on the link for Shirts For Less and within the first three seconds he notices that there is no search feature on the website. This means that he’ll need to search page by page through the site, to find the shirt he is looking for. There is very little product information and he clicks on one of the product links to check out more about the product he sees. The link is redirected to another site that has a different look and does not Say Shirts for Less anywhere. Could it be the same company?  Sure, but the shopper just experienced what we call the “whiplash effect.” This happens when a link within a site takes you to a place that you did not expect and you’re left clicking back and forth to find out if the link is correct or if it is even the same site. Due to the whiplash effect and the lack of perceived legitimacy and security of the site, the shopper leaves the site without making a purchase.

Ultimately the shopper returns to the well designed, legitimate, frequently updated, non-whiplash inducing Jackson’s website to make his shirt purchase. Had either of the sites he visited been designed well, had a legitimate look and a better price, there was a high probability that the shopper would have made a purchase from one of those sites. Without that sense of security, he returned to a site where he was comfortable buying and knew that Jackson’s would be there to support his purchase and was a legitimate business. That piece of mind is important to customers and can be achieved with a well designed and regularly updated website. Make customers want to learn more about your company in the first three seconds.