Why a website looks trustworthy: a few small things, put in their place

Trust isn't built with a slogan. It's lost with an email address like contact@gmail.com on a company website.

The list below isn't ordered by importance, because importance varies by niche. For a dental practice, people and photos from inside the practice matter most. For a shop, the return policy. For a builder, finished projects.

Company address and details, complete. Company registration number (CUI), physical address, a phone number that rings through to someone. We put them in the footer and on the contact page. A client told us that half their phone enquiries started with "are you based in this city?". They put the city in the header, and the question disappeared.

People with names and faces. No stock photos. No "our team of experts". The name, job title, a photo taken in the actual space. If there are two of you, write that there are two of you; it's not a weakness, and it'll be obvious anyway.

Response speed, stated honestly. "We reply within the same business day" only works if it's true. If you reply in two days, write two days. A broken promise does more harm than a modest one.

Consistency across channels. The same name, the same logo, the same number on the website, on Google Maps, on Facebook. It seems trivial. When the data differs, some people assume one of the profiles is old or fake.

Real photos, even if they're not perfect. A phone photo taken in the workshop is more convincing than a purchased image. We've had clients who objected because they wanted "something cleaner". The compromise: a photographer for a day, in their space, without artificial decor.

Prices or at least a range. Not everyone can display prices. But "projects of this type start from X" cuts out some unsuitable enquiries and builds trust with suitable ones. If you can't even give that, explain what it depends on.

What doesn't help

Generic trust seals, placed as decorative images. "Satisfied customer" counters that you can't justify. Reviews without names. All three are recognisable and work against you. How much harm they do depends on the niche, but it's not worth the risk.

A detail that is always forgotten

The contact page on mobile. The number needs to be tappable, the address needs to open the map, and the form needs to have the correct keyboard for the phone field. We check this on a real phone with every delivery, because in the desktop browser it looks fine regardless.

If you like, we can open your website together and show you what we'd change in the first half hour of work.

Trust signals, in the order people notice them

We've put in the table the things we add to almost every service website, with the reason why they matter. These aren't tricks, they're information that is surprisingly often missing.

A simple test, with someone from outside

We give the website to someone unrelated to the project and ask them one thing: tell me in fifteen seconds what this company does and where it is. If they hesitate, the problem isn't with the colours.

We also do this on mobile, not just on a computer. On mobile, the elements we thought were obvious disappear.

What doesn't convince, even though it seems like it should

Generic "secure site" badges, slogans about passion and expertise, round figures about satisfied customers with nothing to back them up. We don't put figures that we can't show, and when a client insists, we tell them it's riskier than it is useful.

A phone number that someone answers does more than three colourful badges.

What depends on the industry

In an industry where people choose based on personal trust, photos and reviews matter more than any text. In a technical one, details and documentation matter. There's no single formula, and for our clients, the difference between niches has been significant.

If you have a website that gets visits, but few enquiries, we'll look at it and tell you what's missing from the list above.

What else is missing here

Not based on a ticked list, but on a simple question: if a new client came in tomorrow with this subject, would they find the answer here that would change their decision? If not, something else is missing, and it's usually a practical detail, not an entire section. We revisit texts after a few months, when we see what people are asking us on the phone and what wasn't written anywhere.