Trust Badges From Companies Nobody Has Heard Of

A row of seals in the footer

At the foot of many small business websites sits a row of badges: a top-rated award, a verified business seal, a best-in-the-city plaque, a padlock with the word secure beneath it.

Ask the owner what any of them certifies and the answer is usually vague. One came with a directory listing. One arrived by email, announcing an award that came with a plaque for sale.

The security seal was part of a package sold years ago, and nobody is sure whether it is still paid for.

Each was added because it seemed harmless and might help. Together they say less than the owner hopes.

Why an unknown badge persuades nobody

A badge works by borrowing trust. The visitor trusts the organisation that issued it, and some of that trust transfers to you.

If the visitor has never heard of the issuer, there is nothing to borrow. The badge becomes decoration, and decoration beside a buying decision is clutter.

Some visitors recognise the pattern. Plenty of business owners receive the same congratulations emails, and a customer who runs a business may know exactly how the award was won.

At that point the badge is worse than nothing, because it suggests the business pays for praise rather than earning it.

Where the badges came from

• An award email offering a plaque and a web badge for a fee.
• A directory listing that supplied a member seal to display.
• A verification service that confirmed little beyond the payment.
• A security seal from a service the business no longer uses.
• Clip art, such as a gold satisfaction-guaranteed rosette.
• Publication logos from places where the business only bought advertising.

The fourth is the one that does active harm. Seals like these often load from the issuer's server, and when the subscription lapses, the box can turn blank, broken or out of date on every page.

A security seal beside a Not secure warning

Security seals have a particular problem this year.

Since last October, Chrome has put Not secure in the address bar as soon as someone types into a form on a plain HTTP page. From July, that label will appear on every HTTP page.

A badge promising a safe site, beside a quote form that triggers that warning, contradicts itself in front of the visitor. The browser wins that argument.

The real fix is a certificate and a site that loads over HTTPS, which is what browsers actually check. It is worth doing before July regardless of any badge.

Badges also cost speed

Many seals are not images on your server but small programs loaded from somebody else's, which check a subscription and then draw the badge.

Each one is another company's server the page has to contact. If that server is slow, some setups make the visitor wait for it.

Three or four of them in a footer can add delay on a phone connection, in return for proof nobody reads.

What persuades instead

Proof works when the visitor can check it, or at least recognises who is vouching.

Reviews in customers' own words come first: specific about the job, with a first name and a neighbourhood, quoted with permission. A link to your reviews on Google lets anyone read the rest.

A rating and review count on a platform people know outweigh any award from one they do not, because the visitor can see how they were earned.

Names, used with permission

For a business that serves other businesses, named clients are strong proof, because a prospect can recognise them and could, in principle, phone them.

Ask first, in writing, and say exactly how the name or logo will appear. Some organisations have rules about their logos, and a client who finds their name used without asking may not stay a client.

The same caution applies to media logos. A row of publication names implies coverage, and if the only connection was a paid advertisement, a careful reader may find that out.

A worked example

An outdoor kitchen builder with two crews had a footer carrying six badges, from a top contractor award to a verified seal and a security padlock.

None came from an organisation a homeowner would know. The security seal's subscription had lapsed, so its box showed an error, and the site itself still ran on plain HTTP.

The rebuild removed all six. Beside the quote form went the company's gas licence details and its certified installer status with the grill brand it installs most, shown under that manufacturer's rules.

Three short reviews, quoted with permission, sat beneath them, and a paragraph set out the workmanship guarantee: what is covered, for how long, and what the company does if something fails.

The site moved to HTTPS at the same time. What remains on the page is proof a homeowner can check.

Memberships people recognise

A trade association helps when your customers have heard of it, or when membership means something they can verify, such as a code of conduct or a complaints process.

A licence number helps in trades that require one, because it can be checked and it answers a question careful customers ask.

A manufacturer's certification helps when customers know the brand, provided the manufacturer allows you to say so and you follow its rules for using the name.

A guarantee in plain sentences

A gold seal saying satisfaction guaranteed promises nothing in particular. A sentence saying what you will do if the work fails promises something specific.

Say what is covered, for how long, and how a customer makes a claim. Short and specific beats generous and vague.

Then make sure the business can honour it. A guarantee is proof only while it is kept.

The counter-case

Some badges do persuade.

Card logos at an online checkout reassure people about how they can pay. A certification your customers ask for by name, or one a commercial buyer requires, belongs on the page.

An award from a body your customers genuinely know, won on merit, is worth showing with its year, and worth retiring once it is old.

The test is whether your customer would recognise the name. If not, the badge goes, and checkable proof takes its place.

The check

1. List every badge and seal on the site.
2. Ask what each one certifies, and who issued it.
3. Remove any your customers would not recognise.
4. Move the site to HTTPS before July.
5. Ask three customers for permission to quote them.
6. Write the guarantee in plain sentences.
7. Put the proof beside the form.

Step three is the one owners resist, since each badge once seemed worth having. Removing them costs nothing a customer would miss, and it makes room for proof they will believe.

Proof beside a form only helps if the form itself works, which is covered in forms that lose what you typed.

Frequently asked questions

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.