Google TrustRank: Is Your Privacy Policy Impacting Your SEO?

Let’s cut to the chase: Every website needs a Privacy Policy.

This is not just a legal issue, it’s important for your SEO too!

You might think no one will notice or care, but having a Privacy Policy on your website today is an absolute must.

And it’s not enough just to have a Privacy Policy – it’s important that it’s up to date.

Having a ‘trustworthy’ website helps you rank better on Google, and having an up to date Privacy Policy is an important part of this.

Let’s explore what makes Google trust a website, and how you can make sure your website complies.

Google TrustRank: How Does It Work?

If you’re focused on your SEO, you’ve probably come across Google TrustRank before.

TrustRank helps Google and other search engines avoid poor web content in their search results.

One way Google measures trust is by the number and quality of links going to your website. Most SEO savvy marketers are across this side of things.

But there are other ‘trust signals’ that Google looks for too.

Ultimately, Google will look for a set of criteria on your site. If you meet it, great, you get ranked. If you don’t, you could be blocked from the search results.

There’s no easy way to measure how much Google trusts your site, but there are a few quick things you can do to optimise your site for better results.

How To Optimise Your Website For TrustRank

Google ranks pages that are considered ‘trustworthy’. How does it decide? The algorithm isn’t available to the public, but there are a few things we do know.

Let’s look at 4 things you can do right now to improve trust for your site.

1. Links to Authority Sites

You might have noticed a lot of SEO experts talk about ‘backlinks’. These are important – but so is linking out. Having links to high authority websites helps build your trust ranking.

2. References

If you rely on sources for the information on your website, having a list of references and links can help let Google know that your site is well-researched, and therefore trustworthy.

3. Have Active Social Media Accounts

Being active on social media makes you look like a big brand – and bigger brands get more trust!

4. The Trust Pages

There are 4 pages that immediately help Google trust your site. These are:

• Contact page
• About us page
• Terms of use
• Privacy Policy

Even just having these 4 pages on your website will improve your ranking.

This brings us back to having a good, up to date Privacy Policy.

There are more things you can do, but this is a good starting point. If you’re looking at this list and thinking, “When’s the last time I checked my Privacy Policy” – don’t worry! We’ve got solutions for you.

How To Check If Your Privacy Policy Is Up To Date

If you’ve copied your Privacy Policy from another website, there’s no way of knowing whether it’s up to date, legally sound and governed by the relevant laws for your business.

In the UK, the laws around privacy are being updated quite often. This is because of changes due to Brexit and attitudes towards privacy protection online.

However, if you’ve got a large customer base in the EU, it’s a good idea to check whether you’re compliant with their privacy laws too.

You’ve probably heard of the GDPR – this is the European Privacy Law that came into force in May 2018. The GDPR gives a lot more control to individuals in relation to how their personal data is used.

What’s more, the GDPR still impacts businesses all around the world – not just the EU. So having a GDPR compliant privacy policy is often a good idea.

How A Privacy Policy Improves Customer Experience

Having a Privacy Policy doesn’t just build trust with Google – it builds trust with your customers too.

These days, privacy online is a big concern for most consumers and businesses. It’s worth considering how your customers feel about the way you use their information.

Visitors to your website will expect to see a Privacy Policy. If they don’t see one, they may have concerns about your use of their personal information or data.

What To Take Away…

At the end of the day, there are many reasons for having an up to date Privacy Policy on your website – legal compliance, customer experience and SEO ranking.

An up to date privacy policy, along with these other tips, can help boost your TrustRank and get you a higher search engine ranking.

It’s quick and easy to chat to a lawyer about your business and make sure you get a Privacy Policy that is right for you. If you want to sort it out now, feel free to get in touch with us and we’d be happy to help!

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