6 Steps to Get AI to Recommend Your Brand

In this guide you’ll learn everything you need to know about Google TrustRank.

What is Google TrustRank?

Google TrustRank helps Google and alternate search engines combat web spam. Specifically, TrustRank measures so-called “trust signals”. These trust signals help them evaluate whether or not core ranking signals (like links and content) are legitimate.

Even though TrustRank was initially created by Yahoo! and Stanford engineers, Google has revealed that they also use TrustRank in their algorithm.

For example, they filed a patent for: “A search engine system provides search results that are ranked according to a measure of the trust…”

Google has also made official statements like:

“So PageRank is the most well known type of trust. It’s looking at links and how important those links are.

So if you have a lot of very high quality links, then you tend to earn a lot of trust with Google. There’s over 200 different signals that we use in our ranking.

But you can kind of break them down into this notion of trust and how well you match a particular query. We use several words – reputation, trust, authority.”

In other words: Google upranks websites that they trust. And they measure that trust in their algorithm with TrustRank.

How TrustRank Works

That leads us to our next section…

I’ll go into a lot more detail on how this works soon.

But you can look at TrustRank like a filter.

If Google sees your links and content as trustworthy, they pass the filter.

But if your TrustRank is low, these signals are seen as not legitimate…and are blocked.

Needless to say, you want Google to see your site as a trustworthy resource. If not, your rankings are going to suffer… big time.

Can you Measure TrustRank?

Short answer: kind of.

Longer answer:

Moz has developed a metric called “ Domain Authority“.

Domain Authority is the closet thing we have to measuring TrustRank directly.

It’s not perfect. But it’s a helpful starting point.

With that, it’s time for me to show you how to maximize your site’s TrustRank…

Step 1: On-Page Trust Optimization

Here’s how to generate on-page trust for your site.

1. Link Out to Authority Sites: I know you’ve seen those lame paper-thin affiliate sites in Google.

Did you ever notice that they NEVER link out to other sites?

Can you say red flag?

But look at any REAL site, like The Huffington Post or NYTimes.com: they’re linking out to sites left and right!

And so should you. Linking out is a fundamental [on-page SEO strategy](/content/on-page-seo "On Page SEO Tutorial"/index.html).

Plus, one well-done industry study found a correlation between linking out and higher Google rankings:

Keep in mind that the sites that you link to reflect on your site…

2. Privacy Notice, Terms: Make sure your site has a thorough privacy notice, terms of use and/or affiliate disclosure. These are “boring” pages that Google pays attention to.

3. Bounces and Blocked Sites: Google’s RankBrain algorithm now takes into account user interaction as a ranking factor.

In fact, Google even gone as far as to consider how many Chrome users block your site.

You can imagine how shady a site must be for people to actually block the entire site.

4. References and Sources: Consider having a list of sources and references at the end of certain articles.

This shows Google that your content is well-researched (and therefore most trustworthy).

Step 2: Look and Act Like a Big Brand

Here’s how to step out of the cesspool and look like a big brand:

1. Branded Domain/Site Name: Forget exact match or phrase match domains. Instead of MostComfortableMaleThongsX.com, go for ComfyThongs.com.

2. Thorough About Us Page: Don’t skimp on your about page.

3. Active Social Media Accounts: All big brands are super-active on social media, including Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and the like.

4. Branded Searches in Google: People search for brands, whether it be Ikea, YouTube, or John Deere. You know that Google considers you a brand when you get sitelinks.

5. Brand Name Anchor Text: People naturally link to brands with brand name anchor text.

Step 3: Trustworthy Domain Info

Here’s what you can do to get more trust from your domain info:

• Register your domain for 2+ Years: Google wants to see that you’re in this for the long haul.
• Make it public: No real company has private whois. Make sure that the address is real or this can backfire.
• Put whois info on your contact us page: To really show Google you’re all about transparency and openness.

Step 4: Trusted Links

The trust you get from other sites is often referred to as TrustRank.

Here’s how it works:

Basically, there are a group of highly-trusted “seed sites”, such as .govs, .edus, NYTimes.com etc. If you can get links directly from these sites, that’s best.

Step 5: Google News Site Backlinks

In the eyes of Big G, Google News approved sites are some of the most trusted sites on the internet. News sites have to undergo a rigorous manual review before getting in.

I once submitted a site to Google News and was rejected.

If a site links to you and is approved by Google News, it adds a lot of trust in the eyes of Google.