Buyers use trust signals as shortcuts before they invest attention.
The six basics
Does it feel trustworthy?
Trust + visual polish
Trust is not one badge in the footer. It is the accumulated feeling that this is a real organisation, making a real promise, with a real route to contact if something goes wrong.
Why this matters
The business problem behind the score.
Missing privacy, cookie or terms pages make a business look unfinished even when the service is good.
Visual polish affects trust because messy spacing, inconsistent styles and broken details create doubt.
What weak looks like
- Privacy policy, cookie policy or terms are missing or hard to find.
- There is no obvious email, phone, address or contact route.
- The site has SSL problems, mixed content or confusing redirects.
- The page looks assembled from fragments with inconsistent spacing, fonts or button styles.
What the scan checks
- Privacy policy, cookie policy and terms links
- Reachable contact information
- Valid SSL and mixed-content checks
- Organization schema presence
- Visual trust heuristics such as contrast, spacing and consistency
What to fix first
- Put legal and contact pages where normal users expect them: header, footer or both.
- Make contact routes explicit, not hidden behind vague social links.
- Fix SSL, mixed-content and redirect problems before adding new sections.
- Tighten visual consistency across buttons, cards, headings and spacing.
Ready means
Not perfect. Ready.
OK
A buyer can verify who is behind the site.
OK
The footer supports trust instead of looking like an afterthought.
OK
The visual system feels intentional enough to reduce doubt.
Questions people ask
Do I need privacy and cookie pages on a small business site?
If you collect personal data, run analytics, embed forms or use cookies, you should treat privacy and cookie information as basic trust hygiene. The scan checks whether these signals are visible and reachable.
Why is visual polish counted as trust?
Buyers read broken spacing, inconsistent buttons and messy layouts as risk. Visual polish is not decoration here; it is part of whether the site feels credible.
Does Organization schema guarantee trust?
No. Schema helps machines understand the organisation, but it only supports trust when the visible page also backs it up with clear contact and policy information.
Next step
See how your site scores on this basic.
The free scan checks this alongside the other five basics, then shows the score, evidence and fix prompts where the issue is specific enough to act on.