Privacy Policy SEO Rule

Check that your website includes a link to a privacy policy page for legal compliance and trust

What This Rule Checks

Scans all page links and common footer/navigation areas for privacy-related keywords including 'privacy', 'privacy policy', 'data protection', 'personal data', 'cookies policy', and 'cookie policy'.

Why It Matters for SEO & GEO

A privacy policy is legally required in most jurisdictions (GDPR, CCPA). Its absence hurts user trust, may cause issues with ad networks, and signals poor site quality to search engines.

How to Fix

Create a privacy policy page and link to it from your footer or navigation. Use clear anchor text containing 'privacy' or 'privacy policy'. Ensure the link is accessible from every page.

Examples

Bad

Good

<footer><a href="/privacy">Privacy Policy</a> | <a href="/terms">Terms of Service</a></footer>

How VibeLinter Checks Privacy Policy Links

VibeLinter’s legal/privacy rule performs these checks on every page:

Link text scan — Checks all <a> tag text for privacy-related keywords (case-insensitive)
Href scan — Examines link href attributes for privacy-related URL patterns
Title attribute scan — Checks link title attributes for privacy keywords
Footer/navigation scan — Specifically searches common structural areas: footer, .footer, #footer, nav, .nav, #nav, .legal, .links
Keyword matching — Looks for: “privacy”, “privacy policy”, “privacy notice”, “data protection”, “data policy”, “personal data”, “cookies policy”, “cookie policy”
Found keywords report — Reports which privacy-related keywords were found when a link exists

Configuration

// vibelinter.config.cjs
module.exports = {
  rules: {
    'legal/privacy': {
      enabled: true,
      severity: 'warning'
    }
  }
}

SEO Impact

E-E-A-T signals — Google considers legal pages as trust signals for site quality
Ad network requirements — Google AdSense and other ad platforms require a privacy policy
User trust — Privacy-conscious users look for privacy policies before engaging with a site
GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) — AI models assess site trustworthiness when selecting sources; having proper legal pages increases the likelihood of being cited as a reliable source in AI-generated content

Related Rules

legal-tos