pageoneresults - 5:07 pm on Mar 4, 2007 (gmt 0)

The BBB Logo represents membership in an organization. Its members are required to abide by the BBB Membership Standards [bbb.org].

Any official looking membership logo is going to have a certain level of subconcious impact on your visitors. I always recommend that my clients promote their memberships whenever possible.

Consumers should be aware that the presence of these logos does not mean that they are safe from the many things that could happen while doing business in today's environment.

There was a company once in the SEO Industry that used their BBB membership as a means to defraud hundreds of clients out of millions of dollars. In this instance, the BBB logo provided a "sense of security" for the consumers. Sometimes our "senses" are off. ;)

Personally, I feel if they are professionally presented and I am familiar with them from my everyday business activities, they do lend a "sense" of credibility. The more, the merrier.

And, those Hacker Safe logos? I've always felt they provide an "invitation" for miscreants.

On a side note, any live versions (JavaScript, etc.) of membership logos are most likely going to cause performance issues. I've experienced this myself with various providers of these services. We now use static versions and provide a link to the client's profile if one is available.

References

BBBOnLine Programs
[bbbonline.org...]

BBBOnLine Reliability Seal Program
[bbbonline.org...]

BBBOnLine Privacy Seal Program
[bbbonline.org...]