What are trust signals?

Trust signals are elements on your website that show you are trustworthy: contact information, a privacy policy, an about page, and terms of service. They tell visitors and search engines that a real person or business runs the site.

Do trust signals affect SEO?

Yes. Google's quality guidelines specifically look for contact information and transparency. Trust signals contribute to E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness), which influences rankings.

Is a privacy policy legally required?

If you collect any personal data (including via analytics, cookies, or contact forms), privacy rules like GDPR and CCPA may require a privacy policy depending on your jurisdiction and your visitors' locations.

← Blog

How to Add Trust Signals to Your Website

technical health Jan 30, 2026 2 min read

What the trust signals check tests

SiteCurl checks for four trust signals on each page: contact information (email, phone, contact link, or contact form), a privacy policy link, an about page link, and a terms of service link. Each is checked independently.

Why it matters

Visitors decide within seconds whether to trust your site. A site with no contact information, no privacy policy, and no about page looks like a throwaway page or scam. Even if your content is great, the lack of trust signals increases bounce rate.

From an SEO perspective, Google’s quality raters look for these signals when evaluating E-E-A-T. Sites that demonstrate who runs them and how to reach them get higher quality scores.

How to fix it

Add contact information

Include at least one of: a contact page link, an email address, a phone number, or a contact form. The footer is the standard location.

Add a privacy policy

If you use analytics, cookies, or any forms that collect data, add a privacy policy. You can use a free generator to create a basic one, but review it for accuracy. Link to it from your footer.

Add an about page

Create a page that explains who runs the site, what the business does, and why visitors should trust it. Link to it from your main navigation or footer.

Add terms of service

Terms set the rules for using your website. They protect you legally and signal legitimacy to visitors. Link to them from your footer alongside the privacy policy.

Most sites put trust signal links in the footer. A typical footer includes:

About
Contact
Privacy Policy
Terms of Service

This ensures every page on your site has these links, since the footer appears site-wide.

How to verify the fix

Run a SiteCurl scan and check the technical health section for each trust signal finding: contact info, privacy policy, about page, and terms link. All four should pass.

Trust signals complement your structured data (which helps search engines understand your business) and overall technical health.

Start a free trial to audit trust signals across your site.