If you’ve got it, flaunt it

Back in 2017 I grew a questionable moustache and couldn’t decide whether or not to keep it. Then I went for a Chinese meal and the slip in the fortune cookie read “if you’ve got it, flaunt it“.

Perhaps mistakenly, I took that as a sign from the universe to keep the moustache.

The phrase popped into my head again many years later (and many years post-moustache) when a client told me their client list included London boroughs, premier league football teams, and one of the biggest housing associations in the country. Of which there were not a peep on their website.

Things like this are called trust signals, and Google places significant importance on them when deciding which websites to serve in search results. Most businesses do not leverage their trust signals properly.

Trust signals: if you’ve got them, flaunt them

When you buy online you subconsciously weight up tons of factors to see whether the product/service and the person/business selling it seem legit.

Some trust signals are obvious, things like:

• Whether they accept recognised payment methods
• Whether they have a returns policy
• Whether they have reviews & ratings
• Whether the reviews & ratings look legit
• and so on

There’s a bunch of far more subtle trust signals, too:

• Can you see proof of past clients?
• Do they have accreditations?
• Are there real people on the website?
• Do they look happy, if so?
• Are there testimonials, case studies, press mentions, awards?

I’ve seen so many times while helping businesses improve their online visibility via SEO, that most clients don’t realise what they have. Or if they do realise, they don’t leverage it properly.

Companies who’ve won best of industry awards, that never mention it.

Companies that have immediately recognisable, worldwide brands as clients and don’t show their logos on site.

Companies who’ve achieved nationwide press coverage but don’t collate it anywhere.

Trust signals: why they matter

Trust signals do more than convince people, they convince algorithms (search engines and AI tools).

Google’s whole Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness framework (E-E-A-T, p26-27 here) rewards sites that demonstrate credibility in real-world ways. All of it counts as evidence that your business exists, delivers what it says it does, and is recognised for doing so by others.

And the best thing is the majority of businesses have these things already: it’s just a case of getting them on the website and flaunting them, rather than losing them to history.

Trust signals: actionable tips

Whenever we talk to a client at the audit stage we ask some questions to get an idea of what they already have:

• Client logos and partnerships: have you worked with any big names, especially ones that aren’t currently on the website?
• Testimonials and reviews: do you have any on site? Do you have a process for collecting them from new customers?
• Accreditations and certifications: do you showcase logos? Do you have a page somewhere explaining in detail what each is and what it means for customers?
• Real humans: are there photos and bios of your team on your site?
• Content quality: have you checked spelling, grammar, tone, and formatting? Attention to detail is a trust signal too.

Then it’s a case of fast-tracking a strategy to get these on the website and into Google’s index.

Trust signals: flaunt yours

If you’re not sure what your business could be flaunting, we’ll help you spot it. Our audits don’t just look at rankings and keywords, they surface the real-world proof that helps people, search engines and AI tools to trust your business.