Part of the guide: MLM Reviews: The Honest Index
11. No Cheesy Photos
How many companies do you see using cheesy stock photos of men in suits shaking hands or customer service employees with headsets? Only display real photos of your business.
12. Prominent Guarantees/Refund Policies
Before people buy anything from you, they want to know that they are safe. They want to be told that ‘it’s ok, you’re safe because if you don’t like this, you can get your money back’ within X amount of time.
13. Clear Email List Policy
Before anyone joins your email list, they want to know that they are safe handing their information over to you. They want to know they will not be spammed or their emails won’t be sold.
14. Provide Lots Of Details
It frustrates me when I can’t make a purchase online because a vendor hasn’t provided enough information. A lot of online purchases are not completed due to a lack of details.
15. Statements Should Be Backed Up By Detailed 3rd Party Facts/Studies
Back all statements and claims up by facts or 3rd party opinions, preferably from trusted sources. For example, if you were selling a meditation CD, you could state, ‘9 out of 10 users in a study reported a dramatic increase in long-term memory.’
16. Offer Social Proof
One of the best ways to build credibility is to get social proof, like testimonials. People trust what other people trust.
17. Pricing Pages
Not showing prices can turn potential customers away. People want to know how much something costs before they engage further.
18. Case Studies Sell
Case studies that show real results can be highly effective in convincing customers. They offer concrete proof of your product’s effectiveness.
19. Customer Reviews
Displaying customer reviews next to your products can significantly increase credibility and conversions.
20. Start A Blog
A blog shows your expertise and keeps your site updated, helping build authority and generate leads.
21. Create A Jobs Page
Having a jobs page can be a massive credibility builder, as it suggests that your company is thriving and reputable.
In Prosperity,
David Wood
P.S. Leave me your thoughts, comments, and questions below.
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James
This checklist is a real eye-opener! I’ve been struggling with online credibility for a while now. Thanks for the detailed steps.
Susan
I completely agree with the part about social proof. Testimonials have really helped my business gain trust from new customers.
Michael
I think you missed one thing: having a clear privacy policy on your website. It builds trust with customers who care about data security.
Emily
This post was super helpful! I’ve been looking for ways to improve my site’s credibility, and these tips are exactly what I needed. Thanks for sharing!
Daniel
Are these results really achievable? I find it hard to believe that just adding testimonials can boost conversions that much. Do you have any proof or case studies to back this up?
Katherine
I have a question about the pricing pages tip. Should I include all my service details along with the prices, or is it better to keep some info for consultations?
Richard
I think the advice about showing prices upfront is a bit too simplistic. Some businesses, especially in consulting, might lose potential leads if they show prices without offering more context.
Samantha
This is a great article, David! I’ve been swamped with work, but let’s catch up soon. By the way, do you still live in Costa Rica?
Oliver
I had a similar issue with trust on my site. Adding clear refund policies made a huge difference in how customers perceived my business. This post is spot on!
Amanda
For those looking to boost credibility, I’d recommend checking out the tool Trustpilot. It’s great for collecting reviews and showing social proof.
Lucas
This was a great read! I’ve learned a lot about how small tweaks like adding case studies and customer reviews can improve trust with potential buyers. Thanks for the insight!
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The jobs page point is the one I’d actually push back on. In six years of building a team, having a page of open roles never read as ‘thriving’ to anyone who’d shopped around online before — it reads as a rotating door, especially if the same three postings sit there for a year. The refund policy point above it holds up much better: clear terms built more trust than almost anything else on this list, in my experience, probably because it’s the one thing a visitor can actually verify before handing over any details.
Samir’s point about the refund policy holds up, but the example the post actually uses to illustrate point 15 doesn’t: ‘9 out of 10 users reported a dramatic increase’ with no named study or sample size isn’t third-party proof, it’s an unsubstantiated claim. The advice to back statements with facts is sound; the example given doesn’t meet its own bar.
Priya’s right, and there’s something funny about it — a checklist for credibility that fails its own point 15 test, inside point 15.
Priya, catching that the example under point 15 breaks its own rule is the sharpest thing in this thread. Good catch.
Pete’s right, that’s the catch of the thread. From my own testing, the checklist item people should scrutinize the same way is the guarantee one: I put ‘money back within 30 days, no questions’ right under the buy button for two months. Inquiries about the guarantee went up, actual refund requests didn’t move at all.
I think what’s being missed in this whole subthread is that Priya’s catch on point 15 is really about a bad example, not a bad principle. Backing claims with real third-party sources is still good advice even though the meditation CD line used to illustrate it is exactly the unsourced claim it’s warning against — that’s a writing failure, not a reason to throw out the underlying point. On the jobs page item, I’d actually go further than Samir did. A jobs page only signals anything if the roles are real and the postings are current; a stale one sitting there from two years ago does the opposite of what point 21 claims. So both critiques in this thread are right about the execution described, but I don’t think either one means the underlying checklist items are wrong, just that this particular post argues for them badly.
Ade’s ‘current postings’ distinction is right, but neither of you have addressed whether a jobs page moves anything measurable. What’s the actual before/after in visitor trust signals from adding one, and over what time frame? Without that this is just two competing intuitions.
Yuki’s asking the right question. From the financing side, what I’ve actually seen is the median business adds a jobs page once, fills the one role slowly, then leaves a stale posting up for a year because updating the careers page is nobody’s job. Rare case: it genuinely signals growth. Median case: it quietly signals the opposite of what point 21 intended, exactly like Ade said.