If you run a website and you've seen a trust score for the first time, your first question is probably: what actually goes into this number?
Trust scores are calculated differently by different tools, but they share a common set of underlying signals. Here's an honest breakdown of what RoastReady measures when it scans a domain.
The Five Pillars of a Trust Score
1. Security (30% weight) This is the biggest single factor. It covers: - **TLS/SSL certificate** — Is HTTPS active and properly configured? - **Security headers** — Are CSP, HSTS, X-Frame-Options, and related headers present? - **HTTPS redirect** — Does http:// automatically redirect to https://? - **Mixed content** — Are all resources (images, scripts) loaded over HTTPS?
A site scoring poorly on security is either technically neglected or potentially compromised.
2. Legal Compliance (25% weight) Visitors are increasingly aware of their data rights. This category checks: - **Privacy policy** — Is one present and does it contain required disclosures? - **Cookie consent** — For EU visitors, is consent collected before non-essential cookies are set? - **Terms of service** — Is a terms document present and substantive?
3. Performance (25% weight) Performance correlates strongly with professionalism. Using Google PageSpeed Insights data: - Page load time - First Contentful Paint - Total Blocking Time - Overall PageSpeed score (mobile and desktop)
4. Content & SEO (10% weight) Does the site communicate clearly and honestly? - Meta title and description present - Structured data (schema.org) — shows Google and users what type of business - Robots.txt and sitemap configured
5. Marketing Signals (10% weight) Does this domain have social presence and external verification? - Social media links present - Consistent brand signals
What Causes a Low Score?
The most common reasons for a low trust score are easy to fix:
1. Missing security headers — Free to fix, takes under an hour with most hosting providers 2. No privacy policy — Dozens of free generators exist; some states and the EU legally require one 3. Slow page speed — Often caused by unoptimised images; tools like Squoosh compress them for free 4. HTTP without redirect — Usually a one-click toggle in your hosting control panel
What a Good Score Actually Signals
A score above 80 tells visitors: this site has been professionally built, maintained, and configured. The people behind it care enough to do it right. That implicit message converts — studies show trust indicators on e-commerce sites increase conversion rates by up to 15%.
A score below 50 means there are structural issues that would concern a developer reviewing your site. These are worth fixing regardless of what any scanner says, because they affect real users.