Trust symbols are visual signals to visitors that your site is trust-worthy. These symbols, often recognizable and provided by third parties, serve as an indication that your business is verifiably legitimate. Using trust symbols on your website, especially an e-commerce site, is known to have a strong positive impact on conversions.
Below are seven trust symbols you can use on your site to encourage customer trust and boost conversion rates.
Security Symbols
The most obvious form of trust symbol is a security badge or seal, indicating that your check-out process is secure and has been verified by a trusted third party. You can purchase security badges from companies like Verisign and McAfee (provided, naturally, that you meet the requirements). Place these badges on your check-out pages to show customers their private data is safe. If your site uses SSL, you'll also need an SSL certificate.
Customer Logos
Have well-known customers? Show them off by displaying their logos on your site. A high-profile client acts as a vote of confidence in your products or services.
Testimonials
Testimonials go a step beyond customer logos and show prospects what clients really think of your products. Key quotes can be displayed next to logos to demonstrate customer satisfaction.
Award Badges
If you win any kind of industry award, by all means take advantage of it and place a winner's badge on your site. A corporate website is no place to be humble!
Membership Badges
If you belong to any industry organizations, look for badges you can display on your site. This is another way of showing your business is vetted by authorities in your industry. If you don't belong to relevant organizations, investigate what's available in your space. (For example, WordStream displays a SEMPO badge.)
Certification Badges
Though they require time and money, certifications are worthwhile in many service, consulting, and technical industries. If this is relevant to your business, pursue getting members of your team certified and then display badges so visitors will know your employees are up to snuff.
Transparent Policies
Be transparent about your privacy policies, return or refund policies, subscription policies, satisfaction guarantees, cancellation fees, and any other policies of this nature. Clear language in these areas shows you have nothing to hide and instills trust in prospective customers.
Free Trial
A free trial button is an indication that you stand behind your product and trust that people who try it will want to buy. Not all products lend themselves to this, but many software products are natural candidates for a free trial offer.
Press Mentions
Like testimonials, positive coverage by the media shows your web visitors that you're worthy of attention. If your products, your website or your blog is mentioned by a popular news source, consider using their logo on your site as another trust symbol.
It is always good to show that your website is secured. I live in the Netherlands, and if you have a certain logo on your website, it’s trusted. Its called “Thuiswinkel waarborg”, translated “Homeshopping guarantee”. Webshops with this logo have met a certain set of requirements. Costumers know that, and are more likely to purchase when they see the logo.
.-= Hans recently posted: Online geld lenen =-.
Great list Elisa, it would be interesting to run some tests and see which trust marks and symbols have the greatest effects on conversion rate. I know whenever I see the blue BBB accreditation that it gives me a real boost of confidence.
@Hans – That is quite intriguing about the Netherlands specific trust logo, I wonder how it originated. Another interesting bit of data would be to see all the different recognized trust marks from different cultures and regions around the world.
Cheers,
Kris
Anything you can do to show trust will really boost the confidence of your site. People need to know that they are purchasing from a reputable site, if you are an e-comm site, or that they are getting services from a reputable company, so put some great testimonials out there, or add the secure logos. Do what you have to do to ensure a great reputation that will keep them coming back.
Good round up of types of trust images. Thanks for this article.
I would just emphasize that it’s important to test each new addition out. When you do testing, it’s surprising at what consumers respond to–and don’t. Yes, in theory these suggestions should help…but when you do a lot of testing, you realize theory doesn’t mean much and it all varies by industry/site/page, even time of day. I’ve found some of these trust symbols work, some of them don’t, but it varies by site and even by page. For example, a BBB logo improved conversion on a page, then it wouldn’t on another. On some of the pages it improved conversion, but it all varied. Ex: different logos (including the rating info or not), varied sizes, varied placement, images/content surrounding it, etc. Just test it all out like crazy and see what’s the best combo for your site.
Great post – many people get so caught up on the functionality of their websites that they don’t take the time to look at the indicators of trust that are required to “close the deal”. This is a great list because almost any business owner can apply at least a few of these – even if they don’t sell directly online.
I recently met with a friend who had a new e-commerce client. The first thing that I said was that the website doesn’t build trust…. I’m going to forward her this article 😉
– Thanks
Krista Neher
CEO – http://www.bootcampdigital.com
Interesting… But no specifics.
Honestly this is a little waffley.
If you are going to call it ‘9 Trust Symbols’ then how about actually naming at least 9 trust symbols!
The name of this post implies a list, but its too fluffy.
Its like having a webpost called ‘9 types of cars’, and then naming them as Blue Cars, Red Cars, Green Cars etc, rather then providing a list of manufacturers or car models.
No doubt this post is well meant. But it needs more thorough research.
Add actual links to as many websites that offer trust symbols as possible, and then it would be useful.
Hi Stuart! Thanks for reading. There are nine trust symbols listed in the article — no numbers in the headings but count ’em up yourself! They are meant to be categories of trust symbols.
Hi Stuart. Thanks for commenting.
Waffly? Interesting. I see the post more as high level.
But I hear what you’re saying and offer you hereby the chance for either rebuttal or a “here’s how it’s done” guest post. Let me know if you want to step up to the plate and I’ll email you your login details to your guest account right away.
Interested?