Raising the Trust of Your Site

[Jason76]

This is of critical importance - and the "Domain Authority" can be misleading regarding it. That's why I would look at Domain Authority (DA) - along with at least one other metric (Trust Flow etc.). Anyway, obviously, raising the trust isn't easy - and I was wondering about any special methods you all know to do so.

Well, one way I have seen is getting linked from a free forum software based site that is trusted at least somewhat. I say free forum software because it is do-follow, as opposed to no-follow - as with the default XenForo mode.

 

[Alexandoy]

Trust is an intangible thing that depends on the user or visitor to the site. For a forum my take is the strict moderation to adhere to the theme or niche with sensible posts. That means spammers and trolls are out. Whenever I would see a forum with a posted spam it is obvious that the moderator was negligent and that's not a good image for the site. A site is like a home that needs to be cleaned regularly to have a good image.

 

[Nomad]

Spammers spoil a forum. If the forums receive a lot of spam and the moderator does not delete these posts soon, other members will deter to post on the forum. I am saying this from my experience. I was once on a forum site that paid me via the forum wheel. The admin used to be absent for a long time and during his absence a lot of spam posts were created. I used to flag these posts. Then one day I was offered moderator's post. I did not accept because I did not have time.

 

[Jason76]

I'm not sure what role trolls and commercial spammers play - but it can't be good. However, another pitfall, one I was thinking of - is linking to spammy and/or unrelated sites.

 

[Deleted member 44219]

To raise the trust of your site, make sure that you, the owner, are active along with other staff and the whole community. Being active is a way to say that you are available most of the time if someone needs help. Make sure your site is secure, if it isn't secure, people will probably stay away from it because of the bad security. Make sure your site is clean, isn't spammed and actually looks good. A clean site will make users wanting to visit more and the same goes for the theme. A good theme equals more attraction. A site that isn't spammed will make people think that the staff are quite good at their job(as long as you train them, including new ones). It's also best to announce new updates, maintenances and changes to the community. Doing something to your site without no one knowing about it is a big red flag and if you constantly do it, some people will become unhappy and just leave. Using a well known host is good for your trust. Using a host that is secure and has good reviews is another way to have a much higher level of trust. Hosts like CreateAForum, ProBoards, XenForo, MyBB/phpBB and a bunch of others are well known and are known to be secure and trustworthy so it's best to use them.

That's all of the advice I could offer. Hopefully you can use this to make your community trust you more.