The ecommerce space is more crowded than ever, but unfortunately not every online store is legitimate or offers the kind of service that customers would want. Shoppers want to take advantage of the convenience of buying online and hopefully also getting a good deal for their money, but the sad reality is that not every retailer is equal or can be trusted.
How do consumers know who is the real deal? How can they feel safe buying from a website? That’s where trust signals come in.
What are trust signals?
Trust signals are things that are displayed on your website, usual visual or textual, that reassure potential customers that your site is credible and reliable enough for them to buy from you. Many trust signals aren’t something that visitors might consciously notice, but when they are present, they can play a big role in reassuring someone as they complete a purchase.
Why is trust so important in ecommerce?
If you’re buying something online vs in a physical store, you can’t really look at, feel or try a product before you buy it. This naturally means that consumers need a little more convincing before making that leap.
The simple reality is that potential customers trusting your website is the difference between making online sales or not. People need to have confidence that you will deliver (literally and figuratively) on your promises, before they part with their hard-earned money. If your website doesn’t instil this confidence, visitors are unlikely to commit to buy, which makes implementing trust signals an essential process that directly affects your bottom line.
Every interaction your customers have with your brand either builds trust or erodes it.
A trusted website can benefit from:
- Higher conversion rates and lower cart abandonments, as customers are reassured during the buying process.
- Ongoing customer loyalty, as shoppers come back to websites they have had a positive and secure experience with.
- Better organic search performance, as trust signals support Google’s guidelines and can impact rankings.
Building customer confidence with these key trust signals
Have a secure website
These days, if your website doesn’t have a valid Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificate, it’s unlikely that potential customers get past the initial landing on your site in the first place. This is because some browsers, such as Google Chrome, will flash up a warning for users that the website’s security certificate can’t be trusted.
The same goes for if you don’t use HTTPS and still use just HTTP, because this means that the website connection isn’t encrypted and so puts any information used on that website, including your personal details and payment data if making a purchase, at risk to potential security threats. Google Chrome will tell you that the website is ‘Not Secure’ before loading the page.
Source – Google
Display customer reviews across the website
Having real and independent customer reviews showing on your website can make a big different to trust. Whether it’s product reviews for specific things you sell, or reviews of your ecommerce brand as a whole for the service that customers have received, it can all have a positive impact on how trustworthy you are perceived to be. Displaying your rating from a well-known third-party review site such as Trustpilot can also help. Don’t worry if every review isn’t five stars (in fact, it looks pretty suspicious if they are). Respond to reviews as needed and engage with customers to try and resolve issues. Turning a negative shopping experience review into a positive one shows that you value customers.
Show customer ratings in search engine results
When you’re competing in the SERPs with other retailers, anything that can help your search result snippet stand out is of value. Using review related structured data (also known as schema markup) in your website’s code can mean that your organic rich search results start to display your review ratings, which can increase your click-through rate (CTR) when compared to search results not showing this trust signal.
Display badges, logos and certifications
Before buying from a website, shoppers want to know that a site is legitimate and secure, so displaying badges and logos of relevant organisations and certifications can be a strong trust signal.
The below example is from Pharmacy Online, with their homepage clearly displaying their sector registration info (Pharmacy reg no.), that they use a third-party review platform (Rewviews.io), that their website has been vetted against a relevant standard (Legitscript certified), and that it meets security standards (McAfee and ICO).
They also clearly show which payment methods they take to help instil trust in customers when they see that their chosen ways to pay are supported.
Clearly provide NAP details and other important information
Name, address and phone number (NAP)
We’ve probably all been on ecommerce sites where the contact information is really difficult to find, which can be a major red flag. A business that only allows you to contact them through an online form or chatbot can be a sign that it’s not a legit business.
Having the company name (which is sometimes different to the trading name), their registered address and a contact phone number all clearly displayed on the website is the bare minimum as far as trust signals go.
VAT number
While not a legal requirement for ecommerce businesses, displaying your VAT number in your footer is a commonplace trust signal and another small sign that your business is legitimate.
Company registration number
For UK-based limited companies (and LLPs), displaying your company registration number on your website is a legal requirement, so if you’re not showing it, that can be a serious anti-trust signal to potential customers.
Google Business Profile
Having an updated and optimised Google Business Profile can help you build credibility. While many might assume that it’s only worth doing for a bricks and mortar business, having a clearly active profile can be a trust signal In itself because it links your ecommerce brand with a physical location, even if that’s just the registered office of the company and not an actual store.
Make your returns info straightforward and easy to find
While many ecommerce businesses of course want to minimise the product returns that they get, this shouldn’t be because people can’t find the right information on your website easily. Having a clear, easy-to-understand returns policy is an indication that you are confident in your products but understand that customers need to know before they order that returns are available and how the process works. Ideally, your returns policy should be:
- Straightforward and written in simple terms
- Visible to consumers before they check out their basket
Use ‘real’ images and videos across your site
Using stock images, or manufacturer-provided product images, along with increasing use of AI-generated or edited images, is very common in ecommerce. The problem with this is that it’s very generic and impersonal.
Using real photos of your team on your website adds a ‘human’ element that is sometimes missing when people buy online. Taking your own unique product images and videos of products being used for their intended purpose or in different contexts etc can be a strong trust signal that you sell quality goods that aren’t just the same as from the next retailer, who is using generic visuals. Of course, if you sell a huge range of products then this might not be possible for everything, but choosing some hero products to create unique visuals for is a great place to start.
Use unique product descriptions
Another common occurrence in ecommerce is to use the manufacturer-provided product descriptions on your website. This isn’t going to help you stand out in search and it is a missed opportunity to boost trust too.
Customers appreciate tailored and helpful product descriptions that speak directly to their needs and concerns.
Maintain an active social media presence
If your brand social media profiles aren’t active, it can give customers the impression that you’re not a legitimate and active company, or that you don’t engage with customers – neither of which are great for building confidence that you’re a good retailer to buy from.
Active and engaging brand social media accounts show that you’re a living and breathing retailer, whilst also giving customers another touchpoint to connect with you, share their feedback or seek customer support. Always link to your active social media profiles from your website. If you streamline the accounts and stop activity on one or more platforms, make sure you pin a post explaining this and point users to where they can find your activity instead.
From a social media marketing point of view, your activity can be a vital part of your wider strategy, but purely as a trust-builder, your profiles can also be used to:
- Share user-generated content (UGC) about your products and brand
- Engage with customer questions and comments
Display media mentions and PR coverage logos
We’ve all probably noticed when a website visually claims ‘As seen on TV’ for one of their products or their brand. Gaining coverage from media outlets or publications adds a layer of credibility to your brand, especially if you’re fairly new to the market.
A section on your website that includes logos of where your brand or products have been covered in the media, along with links to the original pieces, can act as another trust signal that you are a legit retailer and safe to buy from.
Utilise UGC
UGC is one of the most powerful trust signals because it indicates ‘social proof’ that your products are what you claim they are. Real customer photos, unboxing videos, and social media shoutouts help prospective buyers envision themselves using your products. Encourage UGC through post-purchase emails or hashtags, and feature this content across your site and channels.
Working with content creators and influencers on paid UGC can also be beneficial from a trust point of view, with all relevant ‘ad’ labels used to stay transparent
Tell your brand story
A compelling brand story can turn casual browsers into loyal fans. Share why your company exists, your values, your mission, and some of the faces behind the brand. Storytelling humanises your business and builds emotional connection, which enhances trust.
Use your ‘About Us’ page as more than a placeholder—make it part of your customer journey.
A great example of this is Grind, a coffee company based in London. Their ‘about us’ page explains their ethos, their history, puts faces to names and actually has several supplementary pages too in this section. No shady fly-by-night scammy retail site is going to go to this level of effort – making this a trust signal in its own right.
Privacy policy
In an era of increasing privacy concerns, a clear and comprehensive privacy policy is a must. It’s not just a legal requirement—it’s a trust builder. Make it easily accessible and explain how customer data is used and protected. 99.9% of people are not going to read it, but it still needs to be there and shouldn’t just be an afterthought.
Prioritise customer service
Great service earns great loyalty. Offer multiple ways for customers to get in touch—live chat, phone, email—and make your support hours clear. Quick response times, helpful service, and a friendly tone all contribute to a more trustworthy experience.
Consider adding:
- A live chat feature
- A help centre or knowledge base
- FAQs that address common concerns
Additional trust signals worth considering
While the above are some of the biggest impact signals for ecommerce brands to have on your website, there are many more small ways to build confidence and boost conversions. Our top tips include:
- Implement real-time purchase popups (e.g. “John from Leeds just bought this!”) to create social proof.
- Incorporate confidence-building microcopy during the checkout process (e.g., “Secure checkout with 128-bit encryption”).
- Display clear shipping info (including costs) and delivery timelines before checkout.
- Introduce membership or loyalty programs that show your commitment to repeat customers.
How to build trust in ecommerce with search engines
Building trust with your website visitors is of vital importance in getting transactions over the line but showing search engines that you’re a site which can be trusted is also pivotal in maximising your online visibility and sales.
While many of the trust signals already mentioned are beneficial in SEO as well as with your customers, there are some additional elements you can also consider.
Prioritise E-E-A-T
Google’s E-E-A-T framework focuses on rewarding websites through their organic performance when they demonstrate:
- Experience – with the writer showing their real experience of the topic.
- Expertise – with the writer displaying in-depth knowledge about the topic.
- Authoritativeness – with the writer being considered an authority in the field relevant to the topic.
- Trustworthiness – with the credibility of the website being taken into account, including site security and the factual accuracy of content, as well as the above factors also contributing to this.
For things such as ecommerce site content, make sure you run everything you publish past the helpful content guidelines, to make sure that it contributes towards your site authority rather than detracting from it.
Build backlinks
The power of backlinks in SEO is long-established, with each link from a relevant and authoritative website to yours acting as a vote of confidence in your favour. If lots of other websites, including news and media publishers, trust you, then it tends to follow that search engines do too.
Get your technical SEO ducks in a row
Keeping on top of your site’s technical SEO is a great idea on many levels, but it can also help search engines see how trustworthy your website is too, as many of these elements affect the user experience as well. Look at areas such as:
- Ensuring fast load times (especially mobile)
- Mobile-friendly design
- Clean URL structure
- Proper crawling/indexing: Use robots.txt and XML sitemaps wisely.
- Fix broken links and eliminate duplicate content.
Implementing new trust signals on your ecommerce site
The good news is that most of the trust elements we’ve covered in this article are fairly easy to implement and have long-lasting benefits. While some of them will certainly take some time and effort roll out and keep going, the fact that your ecommerce brand is willing to do this is another trust signal in itself.
Our recommendation is that you start small, with the signals that you think are most important to you customers at the top of the list, and keep testing as you go. A/B testing can bring valuable UX insights as well as providing proof that newly added trust signals are genuinely making a difference to your bottom line.
If you’d like help with any element of your ecommerce SEO, content, link building or marketing strategy, we’d love to talk! Get in touch using the form below.
