If you did an audit of various websites, you’d quickly see that not every page that does on-page SEO well ranks well. They may have chosen keywords wisely and optimized their content for them. Yet still, they are buried deep down in the search results while other sites rank higher with the bare mention.
One of the main reasons is the (perceived) trustworthiness of one website over the other. However, there’s a lot you can do to make sure yours measures up. Show the search engines – and just as importantly, your readers – that you have a credible website with these trust factors.
Install a SSL certificate.
You want your website to be accessed through the more secure https protocol. Speak to your host about getting this installed and what steps you need to take to make sure your entire site is converted over. Most hosts have a fee for the certificate, though some of them will offer it as part of their standard package.
Improve your website’s load time and make sure it is mobile accessible and responsive.
These technical details are becoming more and more important when it comes to ranking well. If you don’t get this right, you’re almost dead in the water. If you are using WordPress to run your site, choosing the right theme will go a long way towards helping you win the speed battle.
Add privacy policy, terms of service, and FAQ pages to your website.
Not only will the addition of these pages (and making sure you link to them from each page on your site), signal credibility to the search engines. These trust factors will also show your visitors and potential customers that you are serious about what you’re doing.
Social signals are another important part of trustworthiness.
We are social creatures who look to others for cues on who we can trust and who we should avoid. Set up social media profiles to go along with your site. Build your audience there and share your best pieces of content regularly. As others like, comment, and share, your credibility will start to go up. Last but not least, work on credible content and only try to get links to your site from credible sources. It may be tempting to go on sites like Fiverr to buy traffic and links, but it will likely do little good and hurt you in the long run. Instead, build that reach and those links organically and over time.
