Trust.
It’s a loaded word, isn’t it?
Especially when you’re talking about building trust online without being able to shake hands and have that face to face interaction.
Why is building trust such a big deal when it comes to having a blog?
In order to connect with your visitors and have them engage with your content…they have to trust you.
As humans, we don’t interact with people or things we don’t trust, in-person for sure, but especially online.
I mean, we’ve all heard the phrase “Don’t trust everything you read on the internet” — right? We don’t that want that statement to pertain to us.
Building trust is one of the main factors for getting blog visitors to take action; whether that’s signing up for an email list, purchasing a product, or simply filling out a contact form.
So how can you build trust on your blog?
There are 3 main things you need to make sure you have inline in order to up your trustworthiness so that you can build a loyal following of readers who will return to your site time and time again.
#1. Looking Professional
First impressions matter online.
On average, it only takes someone a few seconds to determine whether they want to stay or leave your website.
And what’s the FIRST thing they notice, even before they start reading any of your content?
How your website looks.
Your design is the “face” of your blog.
Which is why having a professional looking design is at the top of the list. People aren’t going to scroll, connect, or engage with a website that’s confusing, overwhelming, or screams “I kinda put this together in 5 minutes and forgot all about it.”
Now, I’m not saying you need to go drop a couple thousand on a professional designer, but there are a handful of things you want to keep in mind that help build trust when you’re designing your blog.
- Choose a clean, simple, and modern website theme
- Check your spelling and grammar
- Don’t use grainy or pixelated images. Check out this resource to find FREE high-quality stock photos!
- Stick with 2-3 fonts throughout the website
- Make sure the colors are cohesive and work well together, like the screenshot of my about page on my website, MariahMagazine.com below. All of the colors and fonts are cohesive, on brand, and complement each other without being overwhelming.
- Double check your mobile responsiveness
- Buy a custom domain name
- Make white space your friend. Don’t overload your blog with huge chunks of text that are overwhelming to the user.
- Refrain from pop-up and ad overload. Having a few is fine, but if your pop ups are triggered too quickly and you have more ads than content, it comes across as very spammy.
Following these quick tips will instantly boost your online trustworthiness!
And if you’re looking for an easy to follow resource for this, check out the Blog Beautiful ebook!
#2. The Proof is in the Pudding
One solid way to build trust on your blog is to bump up your credibility.
How can you do that?
Well, there are quite a few ways!
- Showcasing testimonials from your readers, clients, or customers. (And bonus points if you can add a photo beside each testimonial to add weight and authenticity to their words.) It doesn’t have to be anything crazy, but a short and sweet explanation of how you helped them and their name and title works perfectly! Just like Allison from Wonderlass.com did:
- Providing screenshots of social media praise from other trusted experts in your industry.
- Showing social share counts on your blog posts. Regardless if the number is below 100 or above 100,000 — showing this social proof allows your visitors to see that other people found your content valuable enough to share…aka bringing in the “other people trust my content” factor.
- Displaying your social media feeds, and possibly your follower counts if you’re comfortable with it.
- Have you been featured in another blog or mentioned on a credible website? Create a press page to show those goodies off, or put any badges they supply you with throughout your website.
Regardless of how you do it, showing proof that you know what you’re talking about…and that other people think so too, goes a LONG way.
#3. Let Your Personality SHINE
Humans like to connect with other humans.
This is something a lot of people struggle with online.
They think they need to write a certain way or that their blog should be incredibly professional.
Honestly, I thought the SAME thing when I first started my business. I thought that if I didn’t sound professional enough, people wouldn’t take me seriously.
But trust me when I say, that’s rarely the case online.
People don’t want to just read content on a website, they want to CONNECT with you.
And they can’t connect with you if you don’t add some personality to your blog.
Adding personality helps you become more relatable, and allows you to break down that online barrier…in turn, creating more trust with your readers.
What are some awesome ways to inject your personality into your blog?
- Add your picture! Being able to put a face to a name is a HUGE way to instantly feel more connected to someone online. Just like Marianne does on the DYOB homepage. At first glance, you automatically know there’s a human behind the content.
- Take advantage of your about page and put in some fun, personal facts or quirks about you. This allows people to relate to you on so many more levels.
- Share personal experiences (good & bad), and your opinions.
- Engage readers with your sense of humor — this one is my personal fav 😉
- Develop a blogging voice that speaks to your readers.
Related: How to Create a Killer Blog Sidebar Profile Bio + Photo
Adding a little personality to your blog is one of the most overlooked, yet insanely important elements of a successful website, regardless of the industry you’re in.
Conclusion
Building trust online with your blog readers is prettttty crucial when it comes to growing a solid online foundation, but sometimes it’s one of the last things we think about.
Take a look at your website, are there some things you can improve to help build up your credibility and trustworthiness?
Let me know in the comments!
About MariahMariah is a website strategist and creative analyst that creates and develop a successful online foundations for entrepreneurs and small business owners. She helps website owners stop shooting in the dark and praying for results, and actually start using their website to get noticed online and grow their business. You can find her engaging on Instagram, posting YouTube tutorials, or hanging out in The Now What? Hook Up Facebook Group, a free community for website owners to help them figure out WTF to do next.
Hi Maria,
These are great tips that’ll help anyone build trust on this blog. Testimonials are amazing, as well as proof of mention on social by experts in your industry.
For example, testimonials from experts and customers are key content components that will gain you the trust of your blog audience because these types of content are considered neutral, objective, and open-minded. But since they are talking positively about your blog, they often resonate more with readers.
This will move them yo take action where necessary.
Thanks for sharing this insightful post.
Great points Moss, thanks and glad you found this helpful!
These are some great things to consider. That part about grammatical correctness really resonates with me. It is annoying and cuts into credibility when I see grammatical errors! That’s why I try to check, double check and triple check that I have caught as many errors as I can before I hit publish. Thanks for bringing to light something important.
I agree Vox, it bothers me too. I usually double check my posts before publishing as well, but sometimes they do escape me anyways… as I then realize months later – haha!
I don’t think that the design of a blog is a big part of the success.
its always the content without good content the best design will do nothing.
I mean go and give a look at Tim Ferris blog looks terrible to me but the content is top notch
Thanks for your comment! Yes, it’s certainly true that design is not half as important as content, but Tim Ferris’ blog could look like Craigslist at this point and it wouldn’t matter because he’s already built the trust and authority with millions of people.
But when you’re a new, relatively unknown blogger who hasn’t established any trust or authority, it does play a big part in whether or not your blog looks spammy or just hoakey. Think of it like selecting a bottle of wine (for those who don’t know much about wines), you usually go for one with a prettier label because in your mind, you’re thinking “If they spent the money on a good designer, then they must be doing alright.” It’s that sort of mentality that I believe Mariah was talking about.
Every user has a different point of view to see the blog but according to me design works sometime but the main thing of a blog is content.
Content is definitely king Arik, but I think that design helps to solidify that trust even more. Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
Informative & very helpful article. Great tips that’ll help anyone to build trust on blog efficiently. Thanks for sharing this article.
Hi, I really like the third point, about being your true self when you blog, and the importance of building personal connection. A very hard thing to do online, yes, but I agree it’s very important to keep this goal in mind. Thank you for sharing this!
Hi, i really like all the point. now im ready to build trust on my blog.
Hi Marianne,
It was a great article! I think building trust on the blog can be one of the most challenging things you do, but with your tips, I will be able to get my audience to trust me. I think the audience or readers only trust people they can relate to, and find authentic, so I try to stay as real as possible on my blog. But I will definitely try out all the other tips you shred in this article, and I really hope it boost my readers confidence and make them trust my blog.