Maybe you’re a cheese expert. More likely you’re not.

I know little about cheese other than that some cheeses taste good in my mouth, and some don’t. I have zero knowledge about where cheese is made, how it’s made, or what constitutes good cheese or bad cheese.

I’m a cheese idiot.

But, once in a while, I have to buy the cheese. Maybe it’s an office event, maybe it’s a charitable cause I volunteered to help with, or maybe it’s something at home—somehow I end up having to buy cheese. It’s not my favorite activity. It makes me feel more stupid than usual.

How Do I Pick the Cheese?

I turn to the Internet (probably on my phone). Welcome to the real world where we all start everything with a Google search. You do it. I do it. We all do it. The data confirm that most of us start on the Internet, and most of us turn to Google first.

I need to know what to buy and where to buy it. I type something in. I want information. I want to know what to do. I’m looking for guidance.

I have high “purchase” intent when I do my Google search. This time, I’m not trying to learn about cheese. I just want a pile of the stuff, but I want the right stuff. I want to make good cheese decisions.

If I’m doing my cheese buying in Miami, then I’m going to type in “Miami cheese shop” or “Miami cheese.” Even without the “Miami,” Google already knows where I am and tailors my results accordingly. Google is going to present me with a list of stores and their website addresses. I’m going to click.

Here’s where the rubber meets the road. What happens when I land on that page?

Which Cheese Stands Alone?

I’m going to scan the pages I hit quickly. Something will need to catch my eye, or I’m on to the next site. There’s plenty of cheese in Miami (it’s like cocaine in the ’80s). There are a bunch of sites in the search results, including the directory type sites (Yelp, Urbanspoon, etc.). The search results go on for pages.

Something will catch my eye.

What if I see something like “Cheese Idiots—Buy the Right Cheese and Look Like a Cheese Pro”? If I click and the content talks me through the solution to my problem, then I’m on my way. I’ve found my cheese place. I’ll be driving that way post haste.

Some things make me click away:

• Lists of cheeses with French names,
• Pictures of cheese accessories,
• The cheesy history of the cheese shop owner, and
• Cheese price lists.

Those things cause me to click away because they’re not helpful. Even worse is the cheese page with nothing but the cheese shop name, phone, and a Google map to the address. Then I’m clicking away before the page can fully load.

But some websites draw me in. When the website seems to understand me and meet my needs, I’m hooked. I stick around, and I dig deeper. That’s what a great cheese site will do.

So what did I find when I started searching for my cheese?

Within a few clicks, I found The Cheese Course and a prominent link to its Cheese 101 and Tips for Entertaining pages. The content didn’t answer all of my questions, but it was a good start, and it was the most helpful material I found. Within three minutes, I knew something more about cheese and what to buy.

The Cheese Course had built some trust with me. It had built some positive feelings on my part. The company had started a relationship with me that cost next to nothing.

Could The Cheese Course have done more? Absolutely. It’s good, but not great. The website has lots of room for improvement, but The Cheese Course is doing better than most of its competition.

The Key Ingredient for Your Website: Trust

Let’s say you sold something intimidating like cheese. What if you sold something complicated, expensive, and scary? How would you build trust over the web? How would you get people to stop clicking and start reading? How would you get people to “head right over” to your office?

Why don’t you peel open some string cheese, open a bottle of wine, and spend some time in the head of the visitors coming to your website?

Ask yourself:

[ While I have you here, I wanted to remind you that you can get the latest articles delivered to your inbox a week before they go up on the web. Just one email per week. Sign up here. ]

• What are they thinking?
• What do they need?
• What happened right before they came to your site?
• What questions are they asking?

They think of legal services a lot like we think of cheese. How can you build trust when they visit your site?