Relevance is a huge driver of content effectiveness. After all, if what you're putting out there--regardless of channel--isn't relevant to your intended audience, it's not going to get their attention. But that's not enough. To act on the information, we need to trust it.
There are lots of ways to build trust, of course, but most of them are hard.
Here are two easy ways to increase trust of your online content, in particular: bylines and dates.
Here's an example:
1. Dates
Seems obvious, but start looking at most of the web content you consume. How much of it carries a creation date? And if it doesn't, you probably wonder how accurate it is, how current it is. And if you're like me, you'll look around trying to find another source that does have a date. Put a date on it! If you update, borrow another page from the media and include that date, too, like this:
Get more thoughts on dating your blog content, specifically: Should You Date-Stamp Your Blog Content from the Content Marketing Institute.
2. Bylines
A byline, even if it's a name we don't recognize, adds some credibility. With so much content, particularly online, offered up by anonymous people, and--increasingly robots--putting a real name on the content matters. Bonus points if you include a little bio information at the bottom, like Quill.com does:
Or an entire author page for frequent contributors, like Staples.com:
These two simple additions to your online content build credibility and trust, which drive engagement. Even one makes a difference, so what are you waiting for?