Trust Symbols

[b4tv]

I have 2 eCommerce sites and question the value of trust symbols such as McAfee & BBB – Would the addition benefit me in rankings or conversions?

[EGOL]

Lots of people believe that adding a trust symbol to your checkout pages or even to your sales pages can lift your conversion rates.

Even the placement of the trust symbol can have an impact on conversions as shown by this study on the SiteTuners website...http://sitetuners.com/case-studies/luggagepoint.html

FYI... Tim Ash, author of "Landing Page Optimization" is Site Tuners co-founder.  Lots more case studies on their website.

[AmieMarse]

Rand did a great training webinar about branding symbols. He mentioned BBB specifically as a way to increase your value in Google's eyes.
Plus... I seem to remember an awesome youmoz post about a site that went up like a rocket just 18 days after they were BBB accredited. Lots of link juice on that one

Someone more organized than me can probably find those for you The webinar is still in the Pro zone.

[RikkiD22]

I haven't come across BBB, I guess this is a US thing?

[RyanKent]

I place significant value in trust symbols. I know for myself they make a difference in my personal online shopping. I have often asked others very specific questions in this regard and the answers have always been positive.

There are many less recognized companies which offer trust symbols. The ones I prefer are:

BBB - non-profit organization which is well recognized in the USA and offers dispute resolution

TRUSTe - non-profit organization offering privacy policy compliance and dispute resolution

Verisign or McAfee - certification of site being malware free and offering additional business verification

In each case, you are mainly paying for the symbol. It is a very easy decision for big businesses to adopt these symbols. Small websites can find the costs quite high.

Also consider the various industry-based trust symbols. For example if you are purchasing a domain it's nice to see the ICANN certified registrar symbol on a site.

Taking the above information and combining it with what EGOL and Arnie shared I would say YES, trust symbols definitely improve conversion rates. They are a factor in distancing your site from your competitors. I would also say I am not aware of any solid evidence which shows trust symbols have any impact at all on rankings. We do know Google desires the best user experience and these symbols clearly add to user comfort level. I believe there is either an unproven ranking factor or will be in the future.

[DaveGerecht]

US only - Better Business Bureau. Most other countries have their local equivalent.

Its definitely worth looking into adding to your site as they are a kind of 'quality local business provider' as each member goes through a good practices check before they are allowed to use the logo and links.

[RikkiD22]

Sounds good, just hadn't come across it here in the UK.

[Boodreaux]

EGOL,

I clicked the link but could not find "where" they place the trust symbols.  Do you remember where the placement of the trust symbols were located?

Boo

[EGOL]

It's been about a year since my post and they have changed the page.  Now, if you want to see trust symbols you must go to individual sites.

Look near "buy buttons" and in highly visible parts of the page such as upper right.