What does SEO have to do with trust and credibility? As it turns out, quite a bit. In fact, strong SEO practices are one of the best things you can do to boost your brand’s trust, credibility, and ultimately, reputation. Still not sure how this connection works? Don’t worry—we’re about to tell you everything you need to know about SEO trust and credibility so don’t miss the rest of this post!
As always, we’ll start with the very basics.
What is SEO?
SEO, or search engine optimization, is a powerful tool that helps create organic search results for your website. The better your SEO, the higher your page will appear in search engine results. And the higher your page appears in the results? The more clicks it’s bound to get.
Boosting the SEO on your site and within your content involves a number of different steps and strategies.
To name a few:
- Metadata optimization
- Internal anchor text optimization
- Alt tag optimization
- Canonical tags (checking, implementing, or removing)
- Implementation of 301 redirects
- Correction of 404 errors
- Sitemap optimization
- Correction of other front end errors flagged up in Search Consoles such as mobile compatibility issues or slow loading times
On-page and off-page SEO
Further, SEO practices can be broken down into on-page and off-page. For example, content creation (including blog posts and web copy), as well as things like metadata and sitemap organization fall under the on-pate category.
On the other hand, off-page practices largely consist of link-building practices. That means acquiring links back to your page from social media and building relationships with other website owners.
Search engines and Google bots look at countless factors in ranking websites. One of the tried and true factors is the number of, and quality of backlinks from other websites. With the increase of quality links, your domain authority will increase, therefore increasing your overall keywords and ranking!
(Make sure to save this post with creative ways to acquire backlinks before you go)
Now, back to SEO trust and credibility! How does it all come together and what do we even mean by that phrase? Let’s talk about that next.
What is SEO Credibility andTrust?
(Resource: https://www.bitrix24.com/about/blogs/dont-try-to-outsmart-google-seo-for-dummies.php)
The simplest way to understand SEO trust and credibility is by knowing that the higher a page ranks for SEO purposes, the more likely it is to be a trusted and credible source.
After all, how often do you search several pages back on on the Google SERP when you make a search for something? Chances are, not very often.
You’re more likely to choose the top results. Whether it’s simply out of convenience or because you know its higher search position is an indicator of that page’s trust and credibility, the odds of you clicking one of the first three results are good.
In fact, just consider this report from the Search Engine Journal:
“The first organic result in Google Search has an average click-through rate of 28.5%, according to a newly published study.
Sistrix analyzed over 80 million keywords and billions of search results to understand how users engage with SERPs.
Average CTR falls sharply after position one, the study finds, with the second and third positions having a 15% and 11% click-through rate respectively.
Unsurprisingly, the tenth position in Google has an abysmal 2.5% click-through rate.”
Pretty wild, right? Now, just imagine what it would do for your business and your website if you could rank higher on the SERP! Not only would your site rank higher, but as a result, you’ll also be a more trustworthy and reputable source.
How to Use SEO to Build Trust and Credibility
So, we know that good SEO (what gets you to the top of the SERP) is a key element of building trust and credibility for your site/business. But now what we need to explore are the best SEO practices to get these results and ultimately, improve your trust and credibility.
On-page SEO trust and credibility
When it comes to SEO trust and credibility, these are some of the important on-page elements you can’t overlook.
About page
Your about page serves an incredibly important purpose on your site. It’s considered a form of the main content (MC) that gives search engines important signals about the content of your site. For many businesses, it’s the second-most clicked page on their site besides the home page or services page. This page provides you with the opportunity to share your story, your message, and your values on a dedicated page. And the beauty of sharing these things?
It helps build your trust and credibility with visitors!
Along with sharing important facts about yourself or your business on your about page, this is also a good space to share even more important information.
For example? You can include links to publications, articles, and media where you or your business have been featured. Google is incredibly smart and it will take this information as a sign of your expertise, authority, and trustworthiness which is key for boosting your SERP position.
Main Content and Google’s EAT Algorithm
(Resource: https://www.safaridigital.com.au/blog/google-eat-explained/)
In fact, Google’s EAT algorithm in determining high-quality main content is an incredibly important point to cover in more detail if you’re hoping to build SEO trust and credibility.
Here’s how Google Guidelines explain this algorithm:
“What makes a High-quality page? A High-quality page should have a beneficial purpose and achieve that purpose well. In addition, High-quality pages have the following characteristics:
- High level of Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (E-A-T).
- A satisfying amount of high-quality MC, including a descriptive or helpful title.
- Satisfying website information and/or information about who is responsible for the website. If the page is primarily for shopping or includes financial transactions, then it should have satisfying customer service information.
- Positive website reputation for a website that is responsible for the MC on the page. Positive reputation of the creator of the MC, if different from that of the website.
The quality of the MC is one of the most important criteria in Page Quality rating and informs the E-A-T of the page. For all types of web pages, creating high-quality MC takes a significant amount of at least one of the following: time, effort, expertise, and talent/skill. For news articles and information pages, high-quality MC must be factually accurate for the topic and must be supported by expert consensus where such consensus exists.“
And as you can guess, the about page is a critical component of your main content, so it’s no surprise it plays such a big role in SEO trust and credibility.
Testimonials and reviews
Perhaps it will come as no surprise that sharing testimonials and reviews is another helpful way to boost SEO trust and credibility.
To do this effectively, we encourage you to have a dedicated page on your site. The call is something like “Testimonials,” “Reviews,” “Case Studies,” or “Portfolio.” This tells the search engine what can be found on this page, which will ultimately further your site’s trust and credibility.
The purpose of sharing testimonials and reviews comes down to the principle known as social proof.
As Yoast explains it:
“Testimonials are mostly said to work on the basis of social proof. Social proof is a psychological process, which causes people to copy the behavior of others, in an attempt to reflect correct behavior. A well-known person, or at least someone people can identify with, may use a product or service and be blown away by it. When others hear about this, they will interpret that as correct behavior and follow suit. This is the reason influencer marketing is such an effective way to sell your product nowadays. When a celebrity on Instagram uses a product and writes positively about that, people will buy it. Because if an admired celebrity endorses a product, that must mean it is just the right thing for you as well! Social proof, regardless if it’s from celebrities or close friends, contributes significantly to the effectiveness of testimonials.”
Google Maps
Okay, we’ve got testimonials and the about page covered. What’s next? Your contact page! Or, more specifically, what you include on your contact page.
When you’re using your on-page SEO to boost trust and credibility, there’s a critical element you can’t overlook: embedding your Google Maps location on your contact page.
This is an important part of your local SEO strategy. We have a whole post on Google Maps Marketing right here. But in the meantime, know this:
“Marketing on Google Maps will impact the way Google views your business. It will also have an impact on whether or not it appears in organic search in what is known as the local 3-pack. Google Map results, local 3-pack, will appear at the top of the page in Google Search. Google Maps can channel thousands of potential customers toward your business. Unfortunately, unless your business ranks in the 3-pack, your chance of being found is exponentially lower. This is why Google Maps Marketing is generally considered the most important facet of local SEO work.”
What does all of this mean? Essentially, embedding Google Maps onto your contact page is one of the most powerful steps you can take today to boost SEO trust and credibility.
Off-page SEO credibility and trust
We’ve covered the basics of using on-page SEO for boosting trust and credibility. Now, what about off-page SEO? Let’s go over that next.
Consider this:
“Inbound recommendations and endorsements are how Google scores your website for trust. It helps boost the trust part of the search engine algorithm and is needed for the function that uses relevance, quality, and trust to give you a much higher chance of climbing the rankings of Google.”
As for how you go about getting those recommendations and endorsements as part of your off-page SEO strategy? We’ve got you covered. This is all part of your link-building strategy which plays into your overarching SEO goals.
This can be done in a few ways and with different outlets. Here are some common (ethical) link-building practices many businesses utilize to boost their SEO trust and credibility.
Tips for acquiring backlinks
(Resource: https://backlinko.com/hub/seo/backlinks)
- Reaching out to credible websites and sharing your product and asking for them to share their honest experience with the product or recommendation of it
- Creating press releases and sharing them with third-parties
- Using a site like Help a Reporter Out to provide resources and quotes for other sites that will link back to you as the source
- Building your social media platforms
Here are more actionable tips for Sherry Bonelli to share in a SEMRush Chat:
“Then make social media posts linking to your content and @ mention the people you quote in your content – they will share. Start writing locally. Look for local magazines or newspapers and ask if they are looking for contributors. Google wants content that is relevant to the searchers. Writing for your audience is important. Ask your customers for reviews – especially Google My Business reviews.”
As for how many backlinks do you need? This varies based on the competitive landscape of your business. Let’s say your competitor has 50 quality links. In that case, we need to at least match their 50 overtime.
How Can We Help?
We’re glad you asked! At Blue Water Marketing, helping your business with SEO, content creation, social media marketing, pay-per-click, and digital marketing is our bread and butter. We have years of experience and incomparable resources to help you get the job done—and get it done right. For example, great link building is a niche form of online PR as well as a crucial SEO strategy. Unfortunately, it’s also a strategy most agencies get very wrong. However, it is something we excel at doing based on the relationships that we have built throughout the course of our business.
Now, let us put our expertise and experience to work for you and generate more SEO credibility and trust for your business than ever before.
We love talking to other businesses to discuss their goals and digital marketing campaigns. Contact us today! We’d be more than happy to review goals & various digital marketing solutions.
Click here to learn more about the SEO services we offer that will have you building your trust and credibility in no time.
Did you learn a lot about SEO in this post?
Take a look at these posts next:
- The Importance of Local SEO Solutions for Home Service Companies
- 14 Benefits of Link Building That You Should Know
- SEO for eCommerce – Truth About On-Page & Off-Page SEO
