Have you ever seen a TV show guest or conference speaker introduced as the foremost authority on a topic? Chances are if that claim isn’t backed up by some credentials, you take it with a grain of salt. After all, anyone can call themselves an “authority.”

And that’s how consumers view businesses online. Anyone can create a website spewing information about home improvement and marketing related products and services. What makes you the authority in your niche or geographic area?

Your home improvement marketing content can act as a metaphorical set of credentials, demonstrating trustworthiness, expertise, and authority. That, in turn, supports trust and engagement and can help persuade consumers to become clientele.

Here are three tips for cultivating authority content on your home improvement website:

1. Use Social Proof
Draw from Google reviews and other user-created content about your company to demonstrate that other people see you as an expert. People are more likely to believe reviews from their peers than claims made by a business—about 85 percent of people trust online review content as much as they trust recommendations from friends.

2. See What Competitors Are Doing… and Do it Better
Do some research to determine how your authority stacks up to the competition. Find out who is ranking for certain keywords or local searches and look at their content. What types of topics are they covering, how many backlinks and images are included, and how long are their posts?

While what works for another business might not work for you; this type of competitor analysis can help you understand what’s working in general so you can find ways to do it even better.

3. Support Your Points With Credible Data
Build trust by showing that you take the time to ensure the accuracy of your content. Use statistics and other facts to support any claims or arguments you make in home improvement content marketing, and link to an authority resource that backs up that information.

A few examples of credible authority sites you might link to: Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies, the Home Improvement Research Institute, and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Yes, creating authoritative home improvement content takes time and effort. But you also hit a lot of birds with this stone, including increased SEO performance (Google loves authority content).