Moz Q&A is closed.
After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.
$2000 for trust badges, is it worth it?
-
Hi,
I just got off the phone with TrustE and McAfee.
They want approximately $1400 and $900.
Needless to say these are significant amounts. Is it a must for a small business selling luxury goods (transactions above $1000).
Thanks
-
I'll give you my non-SEO advice here as all the answers above are good from an SEO perspective. I personally don't believe in them. From a security standpoint they don't actually prove anything. I can show you 1,000's of insecure sites that carry big name trust badges. Whenever I see a site prominently displaying a trust badge I always think they are trying to compensate for a lack of security with a giant sticker.
On companies you would generally trust like microsoft, vmware, google, amazon, etc there are no trust badges displayed. I think a nice statement in your policies about security is a much better move. People who are already security conscious can seek out the information while users who weren't worried about it in the first place won't be freaked out and security snobs like myself won't think you're trying hard
Ps. feel free to drop me a line if you need any security advice.
-Nick
-
Thank you all.
@Gregory Baka - I kinda agree with you but also encountered the following:
http://www.link-assistant.com/blog/how-to-build-trust-for-an-ecommerce-site-in-both-search-engines-and-users/
Which does show a diffeence.We are also not based in North America so we cannot apply BBB badges.
About increase or decrease in conversions I also encountered studies going both ways (though the increase seems more definite than the decrease). I assume that if it is shown delicately and not boldly (as the badges companies suggest) it does the trick (having those who look for it find it and not the other way around).
I Also just encountered a nice piece about improving shopping cart experience and they suggested on doing it as a part of the design - implicitly adding confidence that made sense:
http://uxdesign.smashingmagazine.com/2011/04/06/fundamental-guidelines-of-e-commerce-checkout-design/ (Point number 4)Thanks everyone
-
This has been a burning question, and there are plenty of studies that show increases and decreases in conversions with trust badges.
The reason to add badges:
*** Increase trust and confidence that the site is secure.**The reason NOT to add badges:
*** People who weren't worried about security are now more freaked out by it when they see the "hacker safe" or other logos.**From what I have read:
- Trust / security badges that a user has to click on can decrease shopping conversions.
- Joann.com saw a sales increase of 5% whenthey added a trust badge to their site: http://www.internetretailer.com/2007/09/27/sales-increase-5-5-after-joann-com-adopts-shopping-trust-mark
- Orientalfurniture.com increased conversions by 7.6% when they added a security seal to the site:
http://www.internetretailer.com/2011/01/05/orientalfurniturecom-drives-conversion-76-security - Another site saw a 1.6% decrease in conversions site wide when after they added a McAfee security badge persistently on the shopping cart
- Twitter user Eric J. Hansen (@ericjhansen) posted the results of a test:
Multivariate testing surprise: removing HackerSafe logo lifts “add to cart” by 3.5% (95% conf). Moral=don’t assume, test!
According to Shana Rusonis of the Otpimizely blog:
http://blog.optimizely.com/2013/12/08/ab-test-assumption-security-badges-increase-conversions/Don't assume. Test it out.
My $0.02: spend the $2,000 on marketing for the site, or increasing the page load time. I think it's money that's better spent.
-
I've read conflicting studies about use of Trust badges. Sometimes they're a good idea as it instills a feeling of trust in a nervous/cautious customer but other times it can have a negative effect by scaring off a user who hadn't considered security/privacy to be an issue until you mentioned it! It depends on the level of technical/online shopping experience your customers have.
As Gregory says - test it - get them to give you a month free trial and see if it impacts your conversion.
George
@methodicalweb
-
I once read a small study about trust badges that said they were definitely important, but that people didn't really notice any difference between big-name (expensive) badges and obscure (cheap) badges. If I can find a link to the article I will post it.
If you don't have any badges at all, you should see if adding any badges increases your conversions. Your SSL Encryption badge is a good start. And see if your shopping cart provider has a badge available.
In the US having the Better Business Bureau (BBB) badge would also be a good way to start, and I think you still get a backlink when you sign up.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Requiring customer agree to shipping terms at checkout
I work for an ecommerce company that has many of its shipments go by LTL freight. Our customer service team has issues with a few customers per month that aren't equipped to receive freight shipments which leads to returns and other issues. In an effort to better inform our customers, the customer service team is requesting that we add a checkbox to the checkout that requires customers to agree to our shipping and returns policy, including a link to the policy page. I am wondering how concerned people here would be that requiring the customer to check a box agreeing to those terms would lead to more customers abandoning during the checkout process. Or do you think it's not a concern? Thanks for your thoughts.
Conversion Rate Optimization | | Kyle_M0 -
Redirect Management on Headless Wordpress w/ React Front End
Hello everyone, As Headless Wordpress becomes more and more popular, it becomes more complicated to manage and track 301 redirects. I'm reaching out for advice on this. Our main issue right now, is that after migrating from Drupal to a Headless Wordpress/React platform we lost the ability to track, manage, and view traffic analytics for users hitting those redirects. This was something we were able to do in Drupal. Example: If we have a redirect in place we could see how many times in the past x number of days that redirect was hit by users attempting to access the old URL. Unfortunately, Yoast Premium, has been helpful with other SEO needs, but this is one that it is not able to manage. Anyone have any ideas, experience, or thoughts on this issue? Thanks for your time
Conversion Rate Optimization | | culturefoundry1 -
Partial Website Translation - Strategy Debate
Hi We have a travel site with over 3000 pages in English. Of these around 200 relate to products and the rest are content articles, most of which with very low traffic. Certain products and pages appeal directly to users in different languages (around 20-30 out of 200 for each language). We are debating how to go about translating these pages... If we did "oursite.com/es/product", "oursite.com/de/product", etc then users entering the site on these translated pages from Google would be limited to seeing a very cut down site, bearing in mind most speak English and would also be able to interact with our English language content we are probably losing out. Also, if we detected user language on entry, we would show effectively hide most of our product and content from users. Any suggestions or ideas about how to go about this without losing engagement/conversions/creating a mess?
Conversion Rate Optimization | | ben100010 -
Best to Include Phone Number as CTA Button in Mobile Version of B+B Web Site?
We are attempting to keep the number of CTAs (Calls to Action) on our commercial real estate website to a minimum. Our adjusted design (see attached) has 2 CTAs. One is "Contact Agent" the other is "Schedule a Tour". We are focusing on the listing page, which is the primary product page and critical in terms of CTA. Our mobile version does not show a phone number while the desktop version (also attached) displays a phone number. Should the mobile version also display a button a phone number? Some members of our target audiences, business owners and executives who are often in their 40s and 50s may prefer to call us up rather than communicate by written message. Any suggestions for elegantly displaying the phone number without causing confusion? I have read that the number of CTAs should be limited so I am on the fence as to whether or not to include a phone number Thanks,
Conversion Rate Optimization | | Kingalan1
Alan 6yR88Vt WwYpt810 -
Can Very High Impressions and 0% Organic CTR Impact our SEO Rankings?
I have a very strange feeling that someone bad is trying to hurt our company, but maybe I am wrong. Let me explain. In the last two month, we have seen a very significant drop in sales on our website, but we couldn't figure out why. We have looked at different metrics (Google Search Console, Moz, Google Analytics), but everything looked alright. We had 10% loss in traffic, but we didnt believe at the time that it could be the main issue. Just yesterday we've discovered the following (please see attached screenshot😞 On August 18, 2018 Google launched Search Update On the same date, we had a jump in Organic Search Impressions for one particular keyword, which we never tracked before: "free facebook login". Majority of all impressions (233,000 out of 258,000) were from Philippines. Very low total number of clicks (50 clicks) led to 0% Average CTR for this keyword. Which in return, also lowered our global CTR by 1%. One month later we had 1000's of spam emails sent to our Helpdesk from two IP addresses, also from Philippines. We blocked them of course. It could be all coincidence. I dont know. But do you think that someone can use this fraudulent tactic to lower our CTR and drop our ranking and traffic? Can this influence our SEO in any way? It's also possible that someone is attacking Facebook and we just happen to be there, on the first page, for the same keyword. Should we try to eliminate our page for this keyword and see what happens? I've checked this article from Rand Fishkin - https://moz.com/blog/impact-of-queries-and-clicks-on-googles-rankings-whiteboard-friday and it seems that CTR is an important factor. However the article is from 2015 and maybe it's no longer relevant. What should we do? Thanks! G86Nge4
Conversion Rate Optimization | | plumrocket11 -
Multi Step Form or Standard Form for Data Capture
We are redesigning our web site real estate (www.nyc-officespace-leader.com). A key component of the site is the property search form. Currently visitors completes 5 fields and properties that meet the criteria are displayed to the visitor. I have noticed that my leading competitors (www.42floors.com, www.squarefoot.com) use multi step forms that ask single questions of the visitors. In effect they are reducing complexity by asking a single question per form. However the visitor must complete additional forms. Before results are served, both competing sites require the visitor to release contact info. 42floors has a clever inducement for the visitor to release their info: "Their are 127 listings that haven't been posted yet, but are visible to members." Once the visitor releases info they get to view the listings. While this is somewhat coercive, I suspect it is effective in obtaining customer date. While I understand it may result in some visitors bouncing off the site, the form completions are extremely valuable. Currently we provide listings without requiring registration but obtain very little data about visitors. In New York City, there are so many commercial real estate sites that visitors have a tendency to bounce from one to another without leaving info or calling. Multi step forms would allow me to add questions that are highly pertinent. Like when do they need possession, how long a lease term. By being asked very specific, relevant questions I wonder if that would not in fact increase the likely hood of the visitor to release info Any advice?? I am attaching several of the forms in question. In the event that we proceed with a multi part form, their are certain services like Leadformly that integrate with Wordpress. I see the eliminate the need for a Capcha and have other advantages. Is it beneficial to use such a package? iQUNh 19ugT he23uak
Conversion Rate Optimization | | Kingalan10 -
Overlay / modal for product pages - bad or good for SEO?
Hi all, I am considering using full overlays/modals for an e-commerce site for all our product pages (category/listing pages will be "normal", the product page will come over the listing page as an overlay/modal when you click on the product). Those “product overlays” will also be accessible directly with own URL (if need to be linked to for ex.). All the literature I find out there treats overlays and modals as “marketing” ones (ads, sign-ups, etc.) and is generally critical to overlays when it comes to SEO, while also saying that an overlay that has to do with good UX should not hurt the SEO of our site. What do you think? Will all product pages as overlays be considered as good UX by the search engines and therefore not be negatively impacted, SEO speaking? Or should we stay clear of overlays and create “normal” product pages? Thanks in advance! Arnaud NB: The reason we want to create those overlays are for design and UX purposes, and try to increase our conversion rate.
Conversion Rate Optimization | | Arnaud_Fo0 -
How highly do you value a link from the BBB?
What I would like to know is how valued a link from the BBB is. I've searched various forums and websites to try and put a value on it, but I can't find a whole lot of useful discussion on it and how it can affect rankings. My ecommerce company has been approached by the BBB for Accreditation, which is something I've always been somewhat interested in. I realize many business owners either love/hate the BBB, but so far I have had several claims with them and they've always sided with my company, despite not being accredited. The BBB rep immediately started spouting off the benefits of having the BBB link to you, and I could see that as being true. They have a DA of 96, and obviously not everyone can get a link on that website (money and good reputation required). However, he probably exaggerated when he said often times businesses skyrocket in the rankings because of this backlink; he also seemed to think having the BBB code and badge that link to the BBB website seemed to affect rankings, which I don't think is correct. I also think that having their badge on our website could increase sales conversion (and maybe even increase the number of people that complain to the BBB). I'm not too worried about the complaints since we don't have ethics problems. The accreditation is $750 (seems high) and I'm not sure if it's really worth that amount, but I could be wrong. Would love some professional insight on if the BBB is worthwhile link or if it's overhyped and the money would be better spent elsewhere. At face value, it certainly seems like a good investment and I'd love to hear some insight as to how much value their backlink truly has to a company or if that money is better spent elsewhere.
Conversion Rate Optimization | | CHEATERS3