"Add client logos to build trust." [MOSTLY MYTH]

"Add client logos to build trust." [MOSTLY MYTH]

The logo bar is the laziest social proof there is. It spread because it's a five-minute design task that looks like credibility, and because everyone copied Stripe without Stripe's logos.

The mechanism: a logo says "a company touched us once." It carries zero specifics, and a wall of grey logos reads as decoration the eye skips. A named testimonial with a number — "cut our CPA 34% in six weeks, —Head of Growth, [real name]" — carries an outcome the visitor can map to themselves.

When logos earn their slot: you're selling to enterprise and the buyer needs peer cover ("these people use it, I won't get fired"). Recognition is the whole job there.

The nuance: logos answer "is this safe?" Testimonials answer "will this work for me?" Most pages need the second and ship the first.