The single most important question that AI asks about your business: Why should we trust you? Yes, Google has Trust as part of its EEAT signals upon which SEO signals are built. However, a lot of that trust is built from the domain authority of the page, the backlinks, and how established these are, among other things.
What Google isn’t doing is going: “oh look Dr WhatsHisFace wrote this article, and this is their LinkedIn, and they have a book on the subject and several papers, so therefore they must be trusted.”
How we measure trust as readers and how Google measures trust are different things. One of the reasons why smaller and more recent webpages get some kind of citation on large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT and Claude is because it’s looking for a different kind of trust signal.
The tricky subject of trust
Trust is subjective. What one person trusts can be wildly different to the guy next door trusts. Our trust is built on lived experience. What our brain thinks will keep us safe. All of those little subconscious signs that we can never realise. And the context of the information.
If we get a recommendation from a friend, we’re more likely to trust it than a recommendation from a stranger on the internet. If a business has lots of rave reviews, we’re more likely to buy from them than a business without any. It’s why we are drawn to those big follower numbers and engagement signals: It shows others trust in this, so we should as well.
But we all know someone who gets their information from a different source than we do. Maybe it’s a parent who relies on Facebook for their news, or a distant family member who reads a different newspaper than we do. We may not trust in their sources or judgment, and they, in turn, may question what we’re reading.
The online world amplifies this idea of what can be trusted, and it’s ever more significant in the age of AI, when we can’t be sure that what we see or hear is a person or a machine.
Value of Trust
When we’re looking at our content through this lens, we can see why building trust is difficult, but incredibly important. People need to trust you before they are willing to buy from you. Even for freebies, like a quiz or checklist needs to be a level of trust that you’ll not abuse their inbox once they’ve handed over their details.
So how do we build trust to the point that someone wants to buy from us, and also that LLMs feel confident to recommend us? And why should we even care if an LLM recommends our services?
What AI Says About Trust
I asked Claude how likely someone was to buy on the basis of a recommendation given. You’d be forgiven for assuming the wild numbers thrown around LinkedIn mean that people are ready to buy from you without much effort. All from an AI query. But, as with all things, it’s a lot more complicated than that.
Claude noted that context is relevant when considering any data on how much more eager people are to buy on the basis of a recommendation. Services like LLMs are relatively new, and therefore, we don’t really know yet how much trust people are putting in a recommendation from AI.
Claude suggests that LLMs are seen as more neutral. This is a result of a lack of advertising (for now), and no influence from investors. This makes for an interesting insight as ChatGPT is the first of the LLM platforms to test in-response advertising.
Claude also notes that the figures to date on buyer conversion rates are based on AI platforms embedded on websites. Things like chatbots, which support the buyer process. This isn’t the same as sticking a question into an LLM along the lines of: “Who do you recommend for someone nearby who can write brilliant copy?”
Again, Claude points out that this is all in the context of the prompt. To quote from this platform: “The honest answer is: AI recommendations are genuinely influential and growing fast, but the specific lift from a conversational AI like me naming your business depends heavily on context — the category, how the recommendation is framed, and whether the person is in research mode vs ready to buy. The general direction of the research is clear, though: AI-assisted decisions are faster, more confident, and increasingly common.”
What are the AI trust signals that it needs to cite a webpage?
Again, this is what Claude says it is looking for (other platforms may be different):
Credibility of the publisher – I lean toward established institutions — government agencies (.gov), academic institutions (.edu), peer-reviewed journals, major research organisations, and well-regarded news outlets with editorial standards. A site’s reputation and track record matter a lot.
Expertise and authority – Is the author or organisation actually qualified to speak on the topic? A medical claim from the Mayo Clinic carries more weight than one from a random wellness blog, even if both cite studies.
Accuracy and verifiability – Does the content cite its own sources? Can you cross-check the claims? I’m more cautious about sources that make strong claims without attribution.
Transparency – Trustworthy sources are usually clear about who they are, who funds them, and when the content was written or updated. Hidden authorship or funding is a red flag.
Recency – For fast-moving topics (medicine, law, tech, current events), I try to prioritise more recently updated sources. An outdated source can be actively misleading even if it was once accurate.
Bias and conflicts of interest – I try to be aware of whether a source has a financial, political, or ideological stake in a particular conclusion. I don’t dismiss sources just because they have a perspective, but I note when it’s relevant.
Specificity to the question – A highly credible source that only tangentially addresses the question is less useful than a slightly less prestigious one that directly answers it.
Yet, trust signals and AI are not just about being recommended or cited; it’s about what happens after someone hits your website.
Why trust you?
As a business, you need to be able to answer the question of why trust you within your website copy. And not just about trusting you as a business, but trusting you over any other options out there.
Building this up is a big undertaking. Most of it comes from what your current customers say about you, your brand, and your products. This social proof goes a long way to helping people trust that you’ll deliver on your promise.
It’s also about the expectations that you put in place through your website. Showing what you offer, rather than promising the earth. It means thoroughly understanding your customer and what they need. Trust, like everything else, is more about your customer than it is about you.
Five Ways To Build Social Proof
There are many ways to build social proof so that you’re more likely to be recommended by an LLM. Plus, it increases trust with potential customers. The five below are the most powerful and, if there is one area of content marketing that I recommend you invest in, it is one of these.
1. Case Studies
Case studies, when done well, are entertaining stories that help future customers see themselves using your products or services. The clients in the case studies need to come across as “people just like me.” They need to help someone relate to the service, the experience and the outcome.
Case studies can exist in their own right. But you can also sprinkle case studies throughout your pitches, social media, any brochures that you have, and any sales materials.
Video is a great starting point for case studies, as this can often give you material that you can use elsewhere. However, you wouldn’t just want a video case study. LLMs use video transcripts but not the videos themselves. But your potential customers? It’s very compelling to see someone talking on video about what you do and how it’s helped.
2. Reviews
Trustpilot, Google Reviews, ReviewSolicitors, Glassdoor, and any other review place will help build up a picture of trust in your business for both your customers and an LLM recommending you.
Even without a review subscription, having reviews on your website that support what you say the outcomes are will help increase that level of trust.
Reviews can give as much as they take. We have all heard the stories of the disgruntled client or competitor who has flooded the bad reviews. And yes, an unwarranted bad review can be difficult to remove. Yet, it’s in how you respond to those reviews that matters as much as the content of the review.
I have a client who bought some clothes from a shop which she thought was based in the UK. The name of the business contained “London”, and the website had quickly built up her trust. Only, when the clothing arrived, it was nothing like what it looked like on the website. At this point, she discovered the shop wasn’t actually in the UK, and the returns policy was less than ideal.
She then discovered that many other shoppers had been fooled by what was a very good-looking website. The lesson here as a customer is to always check the reviews before buying. As a marketer, if your website can do the heavy lifting of building trust, people might not look at the reviews before they buy.
I’m not suggesting that you have less than ideal quality and try to cover it up with good website copy, but this story highlights why good website copy can do a lot of the hard work for building trust signals.
This also demonstrates why more people are trusting their AI channel, as an LLM will collate all of the information they find about a brand online. Yes, it’s not always up-to-date or correct, but it’ll give you a better idea than simply looking at a website.
3. Comparisons
Comparison content will help increase your chances of being cited on an LLM, being found in the Google search results, and helping a potential customer decide what to do. I know that a lot of service-based businesses that I work with will baulk at the idea of comparison content. Often, their competitors are more like peers, and they don’t always want to point out faults.
However, your potential customers will be weighing up their options. They will be searching for “Do I get this or that?”. We all do it. Therefore, it makes sense that you have good quality comparison content between your product and another. If you are a service-based business and don’t feel comfortable comparing your offer with another person’s, then compare your solution with another.
For example, if you’re an executive coach, they could be deciding between coaching and training. Or between coaching and mentorship. Looking at comparison content this way can help you create it without feeling as though you’re comparing yourself to another service.
4. Backlinks
Good quality backlinks are more important than ever. The more websites recommend your content, the more your expertise and trust are increased. The increase in AI content has put a greater demand on founders to produce unique thought leadership, which helps you stand out because you’re saying what others are not.
Thought leadership and unique research help increase the chances of organic backlinks as other blogs cite yours in their content. Plus, it can help your active backlinking where you’re quoted in other respected websites.
Of all of this, the quality of your backlinks is more important than ever for building the best possible trust signals. Moreover, it helps your brand reach a much larger audience.
5. Digital PR
Digital PR is possibly one of the most important things you can do this year. Branded traffic and brand citations with LLMs are more likely if your business is mentioned in other places.
Again, LLMs are demonstrating how trustworthy your brand is through their citations. Therefore, your reputation as a whole is instrumental. And if we remember the customers that you serve, digital PR is also beneficial for them. They’re more likely to hear about you if they see you in multiple places.
Digital PR is competitive and a long-term strategy. There is no instant overnight win the moment that you do a podcast interview or get a quote. You also need to leverage your coverage and help amplify it.
Again, digital PR is about quality over quantity. It needs deep research to make sure that where you get coverage has the same audience as your ideal customers.
Why Should Someone Trust Your Business?
Ultimately, AI is answering the question of why someone should trust your business. It does so on the basis of what’s said about your brand. You can influence this through the efforts of sharing your great results, your customer experiences, and your unique insights.
By putting effort into this, you also generate clear messaging for why you’re the best choice out there for your customers. It is through social proof and reputation that trust can be built. We’ve looked at how great copy on a website can do a lot of the heavy lifting, but the reality of customer experience is ultimately the main litmus test of trust building for your business.
Ready to get started?
If you want to know how I can help you create great case studies, optimise your content for LLM citations, and help you develop the kind of thought leadership that gets you noticed, then let’s have a chat.