Building Trust Signals: Testimonials, Reviews, and Trust Badges

When designing a website for your business, it’s critical that you understand the concept of trust signals so you can confidently use them. Trust signals are great tools for making sure visitors feel confident when browsing your website, which leads to more conversions. Here’s a quick look at trust signals, including their benefits and how to integrate them.

What are Trust Signals?

No matter what type of business you run, trust signals matter. They demonstrate that your company is trustworthy and will provide great work or service. Here are a few trust signals you can utilize:

• Testimonials and Reviews: People place a lot of emphasis on third-party reviews from Google or Yelp, and displaying any high ratings or positive testimonials is a great way to establish trust with your prospective customers. Quotes from satisfied customers and video testimonials are great options, too! 
• BBB Reputation: The Better Business Bureau (BBB) and other similar organizations independently track companies and rate them based on many metrics. If you provide a great customer experience, product, or service, your reputation will likely grow. 
• Trust Badges & Seals: SSL certificates and payment badges indicate to your customers that your site is safe, so they can be confident if or when they make a purchase. Other industry-specific accreditations or certifications are also great to highlight. 
• Case Studies: Consider dedicating a section of your website to case studies that go into detail about client or customer success. You can offer insight into your process, how you helped your client achieve their goals, and use specific data that supports the effectiveness of your product or service. 
• Social Proof: Do you partner with any well-known clients or businesses? Consider showcasing their logos, with permission. 
• Real-Time Activity: Some sites benefit from displaying real-time customer purchases or sign-ups to create a sense of urgency. Similarly, offering a live chat shows your customers that you’re actively listening, engaging, and supporting them as they navigate your site. 
• The Site Itself: A professional site with a beautiful design, user-friendly navigation, useful content, detailed contact information, and functional forms can be a trust signal for many users. If you’re not presenting yourself well online, your consumers are likely to lack trust in your service or products.

Why Are They So Important?

Trust signals help your company stand out and thrive in a saturated digital market. Even smaller businesses can benefit from trust signals on their virtual shops. Trust signals are effective ways to:

• Increase Loyalty: Highlighting your credibility helps you reach more people, get better business, and inspire confidence in your users. When customers trust you, you can establish a long-term relationship and brand loyalty. 
• Boost Your SEO: Testimonials, reviews, and other trust badges don’t just make you look better; they boost your SEO. Search engines value authoritative trust signals and consider these as they crawl and rank your landing pages. Our SEO company in Southampton, PA can help you leverage trust signals and many other ranking factors to help you boost your online presence. 
• Improve User Experience: When users perceive your website and business as worthy of their trust, they’re more likely to spend time exploring your site.

How Can You Get Them?

Getting trust signals on your website is a balance of user-friendly design, content strategy, and external validation from customers or industry leaders. There are many ways to increase trust, so here are just a few:

• Provide Excellent Service: There’s no better way to get trust signals than to provide amazing products and services. The happier your clients or customers are, the more likely they are to leave a glowing review or volunteer for a video testimonial. You can embed third-party reviews into your site design or dedicate an entire page to testimonials. 
• Page Speed: A website that loads quickly gives a better first impression.
• Showcase Media Mentions & Industry Awards: Was your business highlighted in the local news? Do you have any positive articles written about your company? Were you given an industry award badge? Showcase these on your site! 
• Create a Blog or Resource Section: Demonstrate your expertise and establish yourself as an authority worth trusting by developing and maintaining an educational blog. 

Our digital marketing and web design experts can help you create, maintain, and showcase these trust signals and others on your landing pages to help increase visibility and conversions. 

We’re Here to Help You!

Our skilled team of digital marketers at SEO Locale can help you leverage trust signals and improve other aspects of your website to help drive traffic and increase conversions. As a full-service SEO and web design company in Philadelphia, we offer tailored solutions to expand your online presence. Contact us today to get started!