Trust signals

Trust signals are evidence points that appear online to help customers feel more secure in their decision to purchase from a business or buy a product or service.

Trust signals were described in an article published in the March 2000 edition of the Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication as trust badges or seals from organizations such as the Better Business Bureau and TrustArc on e-commerce websites. At that time, consumers were more skeptical of providing their credit card information and other personal details to a website; trust signals helped visitors overcome their fears.[1]

In current internet marketing parlance, trust signals fall into three major categories:

  • Trust signals that encourage visitors to complete a purchase or take an action;
  • Trust signals elsewhere online that drive visitors to a website;[2] and
  • Trust signals that visitors might not notice, but that Google uses for ranking.

A 2019 neuroimaging study in the Journal of Interactive Marketing studied 29 subjects who participated in an experiment simulating an online purchase. The analysis revealed that seals of approval from third-party organizations were most trusted, whereas rating systems were less trusted because they elicited feelings of ambiguity and risk.[3]

See also

References
  1. Jonathan W. Palmer, Joseph P. Bailey and Samer Faraj, ""
  2. "The Psychology Behind Trust Signals" (PDF). Trustpilot.
  3. Luis-Alberto Casado-Aranda, Angelika Dimoka and Juan Sanchez-Fernandez, ""
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