If you have ever been in a relationship where trust was a primary concern, then you know how difficult it can be to make it a non-issue. In a lot of cases, a spouse or partner will get the notion that you are not trustworthy, and will retain that notion in perpetuity. This, in turn, can ultimately destroy a relationship. Your website and Google have a similar dynamic at play – namely, Google mistrusting your motives. If you have difficulty ranking well in search or increasing your PageRank (and have plenty of content), then it likely all boils down to trust. Thankfully, in Google’s case, this doesn’t have to be permanent. Below, we’ll outline why Google is giving you the stink eye when it comes to these dynamics, and what you can do to begin fixing the damage.

What Is “Trust” to Google?

Believe it or not, Google actually values trust as a component of ranking sites on a completely different scale than most other metrics. While we are all familiar with PageRank, there is also something known as TrustRank. Even websites with notable amounts of quality content can sometimes find themselves ranking lower than a relative barebones website that is “trusted” by Google’s algorithms. What makes a website trustworthy in Google’s eyes? If after each algorithm update a website is pinging to Google positive indicators (in other words, it is not hit heavily by changes to Panda, Penguin and other updates), then it will build a high TrustRank over time. Another, secondary element that affects this is what you would expect: the site’s ability to rank well in search.

Link to Others

When creating content, you should always strive to source material when possible. This also presents you an opportunity to build trust with Google. A quick series of Google searches in your niche should give you an idea of which sites are trusted most by Google. From here, find ways to incorporate them into your blog posts and pages. Maybe they offer a unique take on a subject you are already covering, or perhaps they have a relevant product being offered that you do not. In any case, being able to casually link to these sites will give you an outbound link profile to trusted sites, which in turn will boost your own credibility over time when combined with good content and proper SEO.

Build Backlinks

Boosting TrustRank by pinging to Google from other sites in the form of backlinks is yet another way to build trust through the search engine giant. This has to be done right, so be careful with whom you associate. One easy way to find sites with high amounts of trust is to check out Google News. While your niche may not have many sites or blogs that appear in Google News for a variety of search terms, the ones you can find should be high on your priorities list when it comes to obtaining backlinks. With the exception of big-name sites, educational domains and government domains, sites that are featured within Google News are among the best types of sites to have backlinks with in order to build trust.