Building Trust with Your Readers | How to Do It

Building trust with your readers is crucial in ranking high on the search engine results page (SERP). If you can show you are trustworthy, you will gain loyal readers.

Google is always searching for the most relevant and reliable content to be shown at the top of its search results page, especially when it comes to YMYL (Your Money, Your Life) websites. YMYL sites affect your money, health, and/or happiness in some way. You must provide the correct information when writing for YMYL websites.

Think about it. If you are looking for home remedies on how to treat chickenpox, you need accurate information that tells you what you need to know. You want to read about something like home remedies, which may help you solve your problems, not the history of the chickenpox vaccine.

Part of Google’s goal is to provide correct, authoritative, and helpful information. After all, you want to find exactly what you are searching for, right? For this reason, Google EAT (expertise, authority, and trustworthiness) tells us the standards Google has when it tries to provide you with the best information online.

So, when you are reading information about chickenpox, you want to hear from a trustworthy source in the health field so that you get the right information that will actually help you.

In this article, we’ll look at what you need to do to implement Google EAT in your content. Specifically, we’ll look at how to show you are a trustworthy source in your niche.

Are You Trustworthy?

Since trust strengthens your online presence, it is considered to be a crucial element when creating quality content for your target audience. You want your digital presence to be strong, and the first results that Google shows in the search engine result page (SERP) are typically the most trustworthy sources.

For this reason, you need to determine if you are trustworthy and how you can show your trustworthiness to your potential clients or customers. This is especially true when talking about important areas, like YMYL websites, because they directly affect your life.

Building trustworthiness with your customers or clients isn’t just about providing accurate information. It is also affected by the content’s creator and the website where the content is located. By showing you are a trustworthy source, you are essentially letting people know they can trust you to give them true, honest information that is completely accurate.

Google has made it a little easier to illustrate that you are an expert in your field because it has extended the definition of an expert to be more than just YMYL experts. You can also be an “everyday expert,” meaning you have relevant life experience with no formal training and education. So, how can you prove you are trustworthy?

Let’s look at the top tips for building trustworthiness so you can prove to your audience that you are someone who provides useful, reliable, and accurate content that they can count on.

Top Tips for Building Trust with Your Target Audience

Represent yourself on your About page.
Your about page shows that there is a real person behind the corporation, because, ideally, you explain who you are, what you do, why you do it, and how you can help your target audience. Be honest about who you are.
As you explain the who, what, where, why, when, and how, make sure you start with WHY your company does what you do. People don’t just want to buy what you do or make; they want to understand why you have done or made it.
Your about page gives you a chance to show proof of your success by sharing publications, examples of your work, your values, and so much more! Create a great about page because that’s where you get to shine!
For a quick way to show readers you are trustworthy, consider using images and videos on your about page. For those readers who are visual, this will appeal to them.
Make sure your about page shows transparency because that is where you can really build trust with your readers. Hint: Include verifiable certificates, badges, and other icons that show proof of your qualifications.
Provide an author biography.
Include a photo, too! You want people to be able to put a face to the person writing the information. This helps build your credibility with your audience. If you have multiple authors, include the author’s name and a byline with the content they wrote.
Explain how the author is qualified and link to high authority websites if they help people understand the content better.
Aim to help people.
If you want people to trust you, you need to build an online presence that shows you actually want to help your target audience. If your motive is to actually help people, which it should be, make sure you provide them with plenty of content that is better than what’s out there (if you can).
You want to show that you are the best source of information. This will show you are a trustworthy source that can be counted on to give readers the right and most complete content.
Connect with your target audience.
To gain loyal readers or potential customers, you want to let people know you want a real relationship with your target audience. This means engaging with your customers by providing examples, telling your true story, or just continuing to write useful information intended to help your reader – not make more money. Reach them emotionally.
You want your target audience to build lifelong relationships with your company, your products, and your services.
Update your page content frequently.
One of the things that Google looks at when deciding the placement of a website on its search engine results page is how often a website is updated. Frequent updates or new blog posts are a perfect way to stay current. Make sure your home and about pages are up to date. Do this regularly to show you have fresh or updated information.
This will help you rank well on Google’s search engine results page. Most of all, you want people to look forward to the content on your website, so provide new content on a regular basis. Make it mouth-watering, appealing content that your readers just can’t say no to.
Provide safety and security.
Offer your audience the following information (if applicable):
- Terms and Conditions
- A Secure Domain Name (HTTPS)
- A Privacy Policy
- Refunds and Returns Policy
- Product Specifications
- Safety Advice for Products
- Customer Support
- Password Protection for Customers
- Product Images

If you want your audience to trust you, make sure you provide top-notch security against hackers or viruses.

Address negativity right away.
You aren’t going to receive 100% positive feedback with everything you write. There’s just always someone out there who is looking at things from a different point of you. You can’t really control this, but if you do have a negative review or comment, take care of it immediately. Respond in a positive, useful way.
At the same time, do your best to get high-quality backlinks and positive reviews. Aim for a high level of customer satisfaction.
Google looks at websites that do not address negativity and label them low quality, so keep your website of the highest quality by taking care of any negativity that comes your way. After all, you don’t want negativity to be associated with your brand or company, right?
Use credible sources for your backup material.
If you don’t have the authority or expertise for the content, make sure you use an expert as your qualified source material. Mention their name, expertise, and credentials if you can. You may even want to try to get third party endorsements from experts in your niche. This will help show you are a trustworthy source.
Make sure you provide links to authority websites where your audience can find more valuable information from these experts. Providing contributions from verifiable experts in your field will also build your expertise and authority because people are able to see that you are a reliable source of information.
As you use credible sources in your content, be sure that the information you provide is significant and relevant to the topic you are writing about. Just because you found an expert source that will boost your trustworthiness doesn’t mean you should use them. Only use source material that is helpful, relevant, and useful to your content.
Provide a way to contact you.
Give readers a clear way to contact you, including a physical address/location. One way you can do this is by having a “Contact Us” page. If you create a great Contact page, you will be able to build trust in a new way.
Publish valuable, high-quality content your audience can rely on.
You don’t have to write really long blog posts, but if you have valuable information to share, the more content you offer, the greater the respect you will receive from your target audience.

Conclusion

Remember to show your trustworthiness when writing high-quality content on your website. Follow the tips above to demonstrate to your readers that you are going to give them accurate information that they can rely on.

Are you looking to boost the SEO (search engine optimization) of your website or blog? Did you know that Google EAT, which includes trustworthiness, and SEO go hand in hand?

At Angry Ape Creative, we make small business a big deal! We can help you with your website or blogging needs, so be sure to contact us today for more information on how we can best help you!