How to Boost Your Website’s Trust Factor

If a pipe burst in your house, you’d want to work with a trustworthy plumber. Most plumbers in your area probably have the same skill set, so it’s trustworthiness that sets the good plumbers apart from the great ones.

The same concept applies to websites and brands.

There are likely a few companies that do the same thing your brand does, so how can you stand out? Trustworthiness. Trustworthiness can determine how your site ranks in search results, and it can also influence whether a prospect thinks you have the expertise and experience necessary to help them solve their problems. So much weight is put on whether your site is trustworthy that Google and other search engines employ TrustRank to help them analyze the quality of your site’s content and links.

How TrustRank Works

The TrustRank algorithm measures trust signals that help Google verify the trustworthiness of a site. The more trustworthy your site is deemed by Google, the more authority it has, and the higher rank it will receive.

Though there are hundreds of trust signals, the two most evaluated are content and links.

A study by RebootOnline found that using outgoing, relevant and authoritative links (think educational institutions like Harvard or sites that end in .gov) on your site had a positive impact on site rankings.

It stands to reason that if you have a lot of high-quality links, then your site will be seen as trustworthy, right? While that plays a role, Google also looks at other factors like your site’s:

• Content
• Bounce rate
• References or sources
• Privacy policies, terms of use or affiliate disclosure