Trust pages - MetricSpot docs

What this check does

Scans the rendered footer and global nav for links matching common trust-page patterns: /about, /contact, /privacy, /terms (plus aliases like /about-us, /legal, /imprint). The check expects all four core pages present and reachable, with non-empty content. A footer with only /privacy and no /about fails — incomplete sets read as templated rather than real.

Why it matters

Google’s Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines — the public 170-page document raters use to score sites — explicitly call out “satisfying amount of contact info” and “clear information about who is responsible for the content” as scoring criteria for the highest E-E-A-T ratings. A site missing trust pages can’t earn a “High” rating, regardless of content quality. This isn’t a direct ranking factor, but rater feedback is what trains the algorithm changes that are ranking factors.

AI agents apply the same lens, faster. When ChatGPT, Perplexity, or Google AI Overviews decide whether to cite a site, the existence of About / Contact / Privacy / Terms is one of the cheapest authenticity heuristics they can compute — and a site missing them gets demoted in citation pools as likely-AI-generated or thin-affiliate content.

For YMYL topics (health, finance, legal), trust pages are non-negotiable: Google’s rater guidelines instruct lower ratings for YMYL sites without clear ownership disclosure.

How to fix it

Ship four core pages, link them from the global footer on every page, and put real content on each.

1. About page (/about or /about-us).

Minimum content: who founded the company, when, what the company does, where it’s based. Add team photos and bios for the highest E-E-A-T lift. Pair with Person schema for each named founder / leader.

<h1>About Acme</h1>
<p>Acme was founded in 2019 by Jane Doe and John Smith to build developer
   tools for distributed systems teams. We're based in Lisbon, Portugal,
   and serve 12,000+ engineering teams worldwide.</p>

<h2>Leadership</h2>
<!-- bios with photos, LinkedIn links -->

2. Contact page (/contact).

Minimum content: a real email address (not a contact form alone), a physical address (or registered business address), and ideally a phone number for B2B. Embed the address in ContactPoint schema.

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "Organization",
  "name": "Acme Corp",
  "url": "https://acme.example",
  "address": {
    "@type": "PostalAddress",
    "streetAddress": "Rua Example 12",
    "addressLocality": "Lisboa",
    "postalCode": "1100-001",
    "addressCountry": "PT"
  },
  "contactPoint": {
    "@type": "ContactPoint",
    "email": "hello@acme.example",
    "contactType": "customer support"
  }
}

3. Privacy policy (/privacy or /privacy-policy).

Required for GDPR, CCPA, and Google AdSense / Analytics terms. Use a generator (Termly, iubenda, Privacy Policies) as a starting point, then customize. Disclose: what data you collect, why, retention period, third-party processors, user rights, and how to exercise them.

4. Terms of service (/terms or /terms-of-service).

Disclose: governing law, acceptable use, account termination, liability limits, and dispute resolution. Same generator route works; customize the jurisdiction and the product-specific clauses.

Link them from the footer on every page — not just the home page. The check runs against the rendered footer, so links injected in a global layout component will pass site-wide.

Next.js — global footer in app/layout.tsx:

export default function RootLayout({ children }) {
  return (
    <html>
      <body>
        {children}
        <footer>
          <nav>
            <a href="/about">About</a>
            <a href="/contact">Contact</a>
            <a href="/privacy">Privacy</a>
            <a href="/terms">Terms</a>
          </nav>
        </footer>
      </body>
    </html>
  );
}

Astro — BaseLayout.astro:

<footer>
  <a href="/about">About</a>
  <a href="/contact">Contact</a>
  <a href="/privacy">Privacy</a>
  <a href="/terms">Terms</a>
</footer>

WordPress — most themes have a “Footer Menu” location under Appearance → Menus. Create a menu with the four pages and assign it. For block themes, edit the footer template part in the Site Editor.

Don’t stub the pages. A 50-word “About us: we are passionate about quality” page passes the link check but fails the underlying intent — both Google’s raters and AI agents read the content, not just the link. Aim for 300+ words of specific information on About and Contact, and full legal text on Privacy and Terms.

Frequently asked questions

Does it count if my trust pages are only in the header, not the footer?

Yes, but footer is the convention raters and AI agents are tuned for. Footer placement also frees up valuable header space for product nav. Many sites put About in the header and Contact / Privacy / Terms in the footer — that mix passes the check.

Do I need a separate Imprint / Legal Notice page?

If you operate from or sell to the EU (especially Germany / Austria / Switzerland), yes — an Impressum is a legal requirement under TMG / DSG-VG, with specific disclosure rules (company name, registered address, managing director, VAT number, register entry). The check accepts /imprint / /impressum / /legal as aliases.

Strongly recommended if you serve EU traffic and use any non-essential cookies (Analytics, ads, embedded YouTube). It’s typically a separate page (/cookies) linked from the cookie banner and the footer. Not currently part of this check, but it’s the same pattern: generate a baseline, customize, link from the footer.