SMB trust survey: Amazon No. 1, Google No. 3, Facebook No. 20

Small business (SMB) networking site Alignable has released its latest quarterly SMB Trust Index. The rankings come from net promoter scores (NPS) from 23,000 small businesses.

There are 86 brands in the index. The company does not screen for verified customers as a prerequisite for rating the companies on the list.

Each individual category has leaders and laggards. However, the following is the overall list of most trusted brands, based on the NPS survey data:

Top 20 most trusted brands

1. Amazon
2. WordPress
3. Google
4. Apple
5. FedEx
6. Authorize.Net
7. Stripe
8. UPS
9. PayPal
10. LinkedIn
11. Twitter
12. Vistaprint
13. Square
14. 1&1
15. Microsoft
16. Dropbox
17. MailChimp
18. Intuit QuickBooks
19. Pinterest
20. Facebook

There’s a fairly high degree of volatility in these ratings. For comparison, the following is the top 10 list from November of last year:

1. Amazon
2. WordPress
3. Authorize.Net
4. Google
5. MailChimp
6. FedEx
7. Instagram
8. Square
9. Twitter
10. LinkedIn

One of the more interesting observations of the report is that “less than half (44 percent) [of brands rated] earned positive brand sentiment from business owners.” Indeed, the bottom 10 includes prominent brands such as Wells Fargo, Yext, Yelp, Web.com and ReachLocal.

The full list, including anecdotal comments from business owners, is available on the Alignable site.

About The Author

Greg Sterling

Greg Sterling is a Contributing Editor at Search Engine Land. He writes a personal blog, Screenwerk, about connecting the dots between digital media and real-world consumer behavior. He is also VP of Strategy and Insights for the Local Search Association. Follow him on Twitter or find him at Google+.