Your blog can be a powerful tool for building relationships with your customers, reaching new customers, and positioning your company as an industry thought leader. But if you want to build a successful blog, the first thing you have to do is earn the trust of your readers. If people don’t trust you, they’re not going to follow your blog and they’re not going to take any of the actions you want them to take.

That’s why your first goal as a blogger should be to earn the trust of your audience. How can you do this?

• Make a strong first impression with your blog’s design—The design of your blog is the first thing a new visitor will notice. They’ll see the design of your site before they even have the chance to start reading your content. So, if your blog’s design is unprofessional and amateurish, your credibility will take an instant hit. You should absolutely make the investment in getting a professional design for your blog.

• Post author bios—Why should anyone care what you have to say? Why should they believe you? More importantly, who the heck are you? Consider adding author bios to your blog so that readers know who you are and what credentials you bring to the table. Once readers know a little more about you, they’ll be likelier to trust you.

• Create original, compelling content that readers can’t find anywhere else—If your blog is regurgitating posts from other blogs, no one is going to take you seriously. They’ll see your blog as a cheap knockoff of all the other blogs in your niche. That’s why you need to be creating content that your readers can’t find anywhere else. Be original!

• Don’t blog about topics you’re unfamiliar with—You might feel the urge to blog about a hot industry topic that, in reality, you don’t know all that much about. You might think you can do a little reading and research on the topic so you can learn enough about it to blog about it. The problem is that when you blog about topics you’re unfamiliar with, you’re taking a big chance that you’ll stick your foot in your mouth and kill any credibility you might have.

• Don’t turn your blog into a big advertisement—Don’t post ads all over your blogs, and don’t be constantly pitching products in your posts. If your blog comes across as nothing more than an advertising platform, no one will trust you or take you seriously.

• Always fact-check your posts before publishing—You have to hold yourself to a journalistic standard as a blogger. That means always fact-checking your posts to make sure everything you write is 100% accurate. It also means proofreading and editing your posts to make certain there are no silly grammatical errors or typos that will undermine your credibility.

Take a look at your blog and put yourself in the shoes of a new reader. Would you trust your blog?