You don't need a marketing team or a six-figure brand budget to look serious online. Ten things you can do this weekend — most of them free — that immediately raise your trust signal with new visitors.
The Ten Moves
- Use a custom email. hello@yourcompany.com beats yourcompany@gmail.com. Costs ₦5,000/year.
- Add HTTPS. If your URL still shows "Not Secure", you're losing 30% of visitors before they read a word.
- Include real names and photos. Even one founder photo on your About page lifts conversion. Stock images hurt more than no images.
- List a Lagos / Abuja / Port Harcourt address. "Based in Lagos" is fine. No address at all signals fly-by-night.
- Show a real phone number. Tappable. With country code. Answer it.
- Add three customer testimonials. With first name, business name, and city. Generic five-star quotes feel fake.
- Display your registration number. CAC RC number, where relevant. Free to add; signals legitimacy instantly.
- Set up a LinkedIn company page. Even sparse, it's a credibility check most visitors will run.
- Get your first three Google reviews. Ask your most satisfied past customers. Zero reviews is worse than two reviews.
- Refresh your favicon. The little icon in browser tabs. Custom favicon costs nothing and signals attention to detail.
The Compound Effect
Each of these moves individually is small. Together, they compound. A new visitor running through your site picks up a dozen tiny "this is a real business" signals — none of them noticed consciously, all of them counted.
"Nothing escapes notice." — Veridian