4 Google Tips To Help You Target And Develop Customer Trust

New York Times bestselling author Rory Vaden once stated in an interview podcast that “People do business with people, not companies.” With the rise in personal branding, this statement cannot be more true and applicable.

In today’s day and age, consumers want to know about the people behind the companies they are supporting, searching their name on Google, looking out for what past and existing consumers have to say about their business, and if they have ever been featured in any conventional media, such as TV or radio.

As a consumer, it has become harder to support a business where you are not able to find any information online. Google recently released a checklist on the Google Merchant Centre that brands, businesses, and digital marketing providers can refer to in order to foster customer trust.

The recommendations, which centre around the E-E-A-T search quality standards, touch on four fundamental areas:

1. Having a professional design aesthetic

The visual aspect of your website design can significantly influence the perception towards the credibility of your brand. In other words, your customers’ trust in your brand can be easily affected by how your website feels and looks. Additionally, the implementation of design principles can define the quality of the web designer, affecting the overall experience with your website. A website that is clean yet professional and easy to navigate can help your consumers have a positive user experience. 

Google shares some tips on the ideal design principles that foster trust:

Avoid placeholder content

Placeholder content, such as stock images, is too generic to justify your brand. When used excessively in web design, it results in lower website quality. From a design perspective, placeholders do little to showcase your team’s creative capabilities too! Hence, fill your website’s spaces with actual well-optimised images and texts.

Website navigation

It contributes to the overall user experience. Know that an intuitive, enjoyable website architecture allows users to access the information they are looking for as quickly and seamlessly as possible. Hence, check for broken links and unnecessary redirects.

SSL certificates

SSL is a protocol for verifying server identity and encrypting your online traffic. A website that begins with HTTPS is SSL certified. Any website with an SSL certificate assures users that their website has been verified and has data security in place, preventing hackers from retrieving sensitive data. All these will help your brand to gain user trust.

2. Managing online reputation

Your online reputation is how individuals perceive your business or you based on available opinions and information. A positive online reputation is able to improve your overall brand image and build credibility and trust, which ultimately leads to the attraction of new customers.

You can manage your online reputation by:

Sharing authentic blog articles consistently

Through consistency, you can foster trust with your audience. When they see that your website is being updated consistently with quality, authentic content, they can trust you as a source of reliable information.

Encourage customer interaction

Customer interactions involve engagements and communications between your business and your customers. Whether it is through sales promotions or customer support, provide details and avenues for your customers to get adequate support when necessary.

Displaying badges and seals

Certification, seals, and trust badges from reputable third-party sources can establish legitimacy and credibility for your business. This can be particularly vital for visitors to your website who may have past poor experiences with similar businesses or may not be familiar with your brand.

Customer reviews

Having many positive reviews do improve your company’s social credibility, leaving a positive image on potential customers. Positive reviews allow potential customers to feel comfortable and trust your business because they have seen that others have had a positive experience with your brand.

3. Being transparent

Transparency in a business is when it maintains open, accessible, and honest communication with its customers and employees. This includes being clear on customer information, pricing, and data. Some aspects of the business where transparency is especially vital are return policies, shipping procedures, and data practices.

Some ways your business can grow in transparency and openness are through:

Business operations

Being transparent helps foster stronger relationships with your employees and customers. They will have more confidence in your business and the decisions made when they know what and why certain things are happening. Such details could be your business’s operational methods and certain decisions made within the company.

Detailed customer service policies

A well-crafted set of policies benefits not only your customers but also your teams. With a detailed customer service policy, your teams can follow a routine practice, such as finding the most efficient or quickest way to answer FAQs and resolve issues. In addition, policies such as protecting customer privacy returned items procedures, and shipping details provide your customer peace of mind when interacting with your business.

4. Establishing business legitimacy

A strong brand identity can affect your customers’ perception of your services and products as higher quality. On top of that, brand identity enables your business to build up a pool of loyal customers, lifting your bottom line. Your brand identity can include every element of your business, including colour, logo, and name. Customers like interacting with businesses that have a unified and clear identity.

You can establish business legitimacy by:

Increasing your social media presence

Social media helps your business engage with your customer as well as find out what your customers are talking about you. You can also leverage social media to advertise and offer promotional giveaways. Ensuring that you promote the links to your social media profiles on your website can help you increase your social media presence as well as enhance your brand’s SEO.

Crafting an “about us” page

The “about us” page helps online businesses foster a positive relationship with their customers, building trust by being able to put a story and face to the business. The “about us” page also serves pretty much the same purpose for businesses that sell unique or less-common items.

Using the correct official business name consistently

To any potential customers, you and your competitors might look the same. Hence, the only thing that separates you from them is your business name. Having a memorable and unique business name can put you ahead of the game. Additionally, being consistent with your official name throughout your website helps to build trust in your brand.

Helping Google know your business better

At the end of the day, an ideal website design is not only a user-centric one but also a Google-centric one. Designing with the search engine in mind enables future benefits, such as better reach and visibility. That is why we encourage businesses to submit their websites to Google. The more Google is aware of your business, the better it can recommend your website to more customers.

Here are some straightforward steps to improve that:

• Seller rating eligibility: Customer reviews are not only capable of influencing consumer decisions, but they can also strengthen your business’s credibility. Reviews are the way to gain customer trust, encouraging them to interact with your brand, ultimately leading to increased profits. Opting to review services, such as Google Customer Reviews, allows you to boost your eligibility for seller ratings.

• SEO guidelines: To put it simply, SEO, especially on-page SEO, is vital because it boosts the visibility of your website, which means higher traffic and more opportunities for conversions. It is also a valuable aspect for building relationships with prospects, brand awareness, and positioning your brand as a trustworthy and authoritative expert in your related industry.

• Google business profile: One of the primary tools employed in both SEO and SEM services, Google Business Profile, helps to list the location of your business on local search results and Google Maps. By creating a Google Business Profile, you are able to display vital business information, such as your website link, contact details, and operating hours. It is free anyway!

• Third-party platforms: Linking online products that you are selling on third-party shopping platforms, such as WooCommerce, Shopify, and Amazon, to your Google Merchant Centre account allows your products to be displayed in more places on Google, such as Google Ads.

• Business information: Ensure that you fill in every detail about your company in your Google Merchant Centre account, such as product categories, contact information, and business name.

Conclusion

In a constantly evolving landscape that is increasingly influenced by social and digital factors, fostering brand credibility and trust is imperative to business success. It is not just a desirable attribute but a vital component that directly impacts word, of mouth referrals, consumer loyalty, and, ultimately, the profitability and longevity of a business.

In a world where competition is rife and consumers are drowned with a plethora of choices, trust and credibility becomes the defining factor that sways decision-making in favour of your brand over the rest. Investing in building trust and credibility not only helps your customer navigate through market uncertainties but also cements your business’s position in the minds and hearts of consumers.