Without building trust on your website, you will lose business. You can offer the greatest service on the planet but your customer won’t engage unless they know you are trustworthy.
Trust is what drives every successful business relationship. And one of the biggest tools in building good business relationships is through a great website displaying your trustworthiness as a company and as a brand. In the digital age, most people discover new businesses and professionals on the internet, browsing on their phones or computers. That’s why it’s essential to make sure that your website is as beautiful, helpful and as trustworthy as it possibly can be. For many potential customers, your website will be the first impression they see. Make it count!
So we’ve put together this blog as a guide on what makes a website trustworthy and how you can implement these tips into your own website.
Think Like A Customer
The first thing you should do is think about what you would be expecting to find as a potential customer. What would you look for to indicate that a website is trustworthy? We would look for evidence that the company can meet our needs. Evidence such as positive reviews would satisfy our concerns. We might also look for business information – what makes this business better than any other in the industry? Are they experts who know their field well? Will we be in good hands? Are they qualified to provide the service that we need? We are paying for this service after all!
The Pyramid of Trust
Within the world of web design, building trust has many layers. Web designers simplify these layers by putting them into a pyramid that shows how a user’s willingness to trust your website develops:
Katie Sherwin writes about the pyramid of trust in detail and her article is extremely useful in understanding how customers develop relationships. You can find the link to this article here.
How Can We Use Websites To Build Trustworthiness?
So with the pyramid of trust in mind, how can we use our website to meet all the levels of trust? Your website alone must be capable of achieving this because most potential customers will be searching online as we mentioned earlier. So, what makes a trustworthy website?
1. Reviews
There is no better way to build trust than to show that others have been satisfied with the work you have done. Ideally, the higher reviews your business has, the more effective reviews will be in building trust. Reviews can also show that you have experience providing your service which can also be an indicator of trustworthiness – the harsh truth is that we would rather hire a professional who has worked with a hundred customers rather than one who is brand new to the industry. But make sure that your reviews are coming from real customers and are not AI-generated.
2. Page Consistency
Featuring a similar layout on all of your website’s pages shows organisation and makes the user more likely to recognise your brand. This includes keeping the website’s typography, colours, language style and tone of voice the same across all pages, from your About page to your Service pages. Your website looks more official and recognisable, which is key in building trust.
As an example, let’s have a look at one of our client’s websites and how they have shown consistency.
Taylor Roofing use this roof-shaped design on all of their pages:
Link to Taylor Roofing’s website: https://taylorrm.co.uk/
This makes their logo and website design very recognisable. They’re consistent in their branding, reinforcing the idea that they will be consistent with their level of service. That’s what we want as customers.
3. Case Studies
Case studies are a great way to make your business stand out for many different reasons. If you’re smart, you can use the challenges your company has faced in the past to make them look good. Showing how your team came together on past jobs proves that you can get the job done, even on difficult jobs. The more detailed your case studies are, the more credibility and trustworthiness they will build for you.
So let’s take a look at an example now. Here’s another one of our clients, PAR Refrigeration, which you can read below:
This case study is incredibly detailed and told like a story. Telling stories can humanise your brand and remind your customers that you too are human just like them.
Another case study example from RJ Wilson who specialise in Fire alarm installation Lincoln
4. Contact Information
This one goes without saying. The more contact information you include, the more trustworthy your business looks. But the key is to have as many different ways to contact your business as possible because that shows that you have a large online presence. For example, you can display your company phone number along with an email address to give people the choice between calling or emailing. Having a contact form is official and professional but just make sure that there is a clear link to the form.
We would also recommend getting all of your social media profiles on there. If you don’t have much to show on social media, then get on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, any other platform you can find and start making profiles where customers can get in touch with you. Smart Insights Digital Marketing shows that more than 5 billion people are active on social media globally. And according to Synup’s Social Media Marketing Statistics 2025, 58% of consumers discover new businesses for the first time on social media. Don’t miss out on these figures!
Profiles on Checkatrade, Yelp, Trust Advisor and other trade websites can help build professional trust. So many people use these websites when looking for service providers. Each month, 2 million homeowners visit Checkatrade alone to look for tradespeople while Yelp records a total of 178 million unique visitors every month. Taking the time to get on them would be highly beneficial.
5. Business Information & About Page
When meeting a new person, you would want to get to know them before you trust them. It’s the same principle with businesses. Your customers want to know who you are. As much detail as you can give about your business and its history would encourage a customer that you are not hiding anything. The more your customer knows about your business, the more they’ll trust you, both as a company and as fellow human beings.
Here’s an example. This is a story by one of our clients, Dawsons Electrical.
Link: https://dawsonselectrical.co.uk/
They’ve written a history of their business and team which includes significant jobs that they have completed in the past, challenges of starting a business and a little on what makes Dawsons Electrical stand out. We really get to know this team and that makes us connect with them.
6. Showcase of Expertise
As customers, we want to invest in a professional who knows their field better than anyone else. We want to see evidence of their knowledge in the industry and their technical expertise. This is something you can do by incorporating a little bit of educational information on your website. You can integrate this into the services you provide or through blogs that go into detail about common issues within your industry. Showing that you’re an expert in your field makes us trust that you’re more than capable of providing the service.
So here’s an example:
Link: https://stansbie.uk/
This is another one of our clients, Stansbie Flooring. They post regular blogs on their website about flooring options, going into technical detail on advantages, disadvantages and popular topics in the industry. This blog not only showcases their knowledge within their field but also informs customers about flooring options available to them. Your customer might become more confident in what they want, thanks to a bit of educational information on your website.
7. High Quality Images
Would you trust a website with blurry, unclear images? Not only can you not see the details of the image but it shows a complete lack of effort on your part. The same goes for generic stock photos. They lack the character and charm of photos you’ve taken yourself. High quality images not only show that you take pride in your brand’s appearance but they also show experience – pictures can act as evidence that you’ve been around and that you’ve worked on all these beautiful jobs. Taking more pride in your work makes you more trustworthy.
8. Accreditations & Certifications
Similar to expertise and technical knowledge, customers would also like to see evidence of qualifications, one of the biggest indicators of trustworthiness. We want the reassurance that this service provider is trained to be professional, is qualified and that they will work to legal standards of safety. When you’re listing your accreditations and certifications, then you’ll want to show the logos and some information about the awarding accreditation bodies so that we know you’re not making them up!
So let’s see another example.
Link: https://www.loxleyservices.co.uk/
This is another one of our clients, Loxley Services, who specialise in kitchen installations. They have their accreditations clearly shown in large sections on their website with logos, information and what it says about their business.
9. Clean Website Design
The simplistic, minimalist design is on the rise in popularity these days.
Why are minimalist designs so popular in web design now? And what makes them trustworthy?
Well, the biggest reason is the way they enhance user experience. Check out our About page if you’re wondering what a minimalist design looks like:
They’re modern, innovative and stylish. Customers can clearly find information they’re looking for without being distracted by flashy colours or effects. Minimalist sites are also easier to navigate. On top of this, keeping your website simple will improve load times and performance. They’re also easier to convert into mobile form because we have to remember that so many people look for businesses on their phones instead of their computers.
A 2023 survey by Adobe found that 63% of consumers prefer brands with minimalist design elements.
10. Connection To Audience
This is the most overlooked part of marketing. People use high level language, write about services and products but sometimes, we forget to connect to our users on a human level. Reassuring our potential customers that we are humans too can rid them of doubts and make them feel like they will be supported. Using emotive language and relating to your target audience can show empathy, which then shows that you put yourself in the customer’s shoes. You know what your target audience wants because you know that you are no different to them. Connect with your audience in a way that a chat bot would not be able to and come across as more trustworthy in this sense.
Improve Your Trustworthiness With Active Internet Marketing
We hope that you found this blog helpful. See how many of these tips you can incorporate into your website. Want some advice and guidance? You can find it here at Active Internet Marketing. We offer free SEO audits to find out how trustworthy your website is. To find out more, check out our free SEO audit service.
Our team can help in many different areas of marketing such as PPC, SEO, social media, and web design. Claim your free SEO audit by giving us a call at 01780 693003 or write away on our inquiry form.
