No technical background needed. This tutorial walks you through running your first Website Trust Audit, reading the result, and deciding what to do next. By the end you'll know how to screen any public website for the markers of a legitimate operation — useful for vendor checks, comparing competitors, or sense-checking your own site before customers see it.
An AIWebPageSEO account (free to create) and a credit balance of at least £1.99 (one audit). That's it. You don't need to own the website you're auditing — the audit is passive and reads only public information.
Go to aiwebpageseo.com and click "Sign in" (top right). If you don't have an account, create one — it takes 30 seconds.
Trust Audit costs £1.99 per run. Click "Balance" in your dashboard and add credit (minimum £5). Credits never expire.
From the Tool Directory sidebar, expand "🛡 Security" and click "Trust Audit". Or go directly to /trust-audit.html.
Type or paste any public website URL into the input field. Examples: https://example.com, www.yoursite.co.uk, https://competitor.com. The audit works on any public site — you don't need to own it.
£1.99 is deducted from your credit balance. The audit takes 15–20 seconds — DataForSEO calls (WHOIS, backlinks, technology detection), homepage fetch, robots.txt fetch and Safe Browsing check all run in parallel. If anything fails server-side, your £1.99 is automatically refunded.
The result shows a score from 0 to 100 and a letter grade A–F. Underneath, you'll see the per-category breakdown across 8 categories: Domain, Reputation, Authority, Identity, Behaviour, On-Page, Technology, TLD risk.
Scroll down to the "Issues" list. Each failed check shows: what was checked, what we found, why it matters, and an actionable fix. They're sorted by point impact — the highest-impact issue is first.
The grade is a screening signal, not a verdict. Use this table to decide what to do next:
| Grade | What to do next |
|---|---|
| A (80-100) | Site shows strong trust signals. Proceed with normal due diligence. |
| B (60-79) | Generally OK. Check the per-category breakdown for any specific weak area before transacting. |
| C (40-59) | Mixed. Could be a new but legitimate business — or could be hiding something. Cross-check with Companies House, Trustpilot, LinkedIn. |
| D (20-39) | Significant trust deficits. Do not transact without independent verification. |
| F (0-19) | Multiple red flags. High likelihood of scam or fraudulent operation. |
Run the audit. If they score A or B, you've cleared a basic structural-trust hurdle — combined with normal due diligence (Companies House, references, sample work), you can proceed. If they score C–F, dig deeper before signing anything.
Run the audit on your own domain. Focus on the failed-checks list. Each has an actionable fix. The highest-impact gains usually come from: adding an Organization schema (3 points), linking About + Contact pages from the homepage (6 points combined), and configuring Safe Browsing on your hosting (worth up to 12 points once enabled).
Phishing emails and social-media scam links go to fresh, throwaway domains. A trust audit takes 20 seconds and is decisive: a phishing site typically scores D or F (new domain, hidden WHOIS, no backlinks, no identity signals, often a high-risk TLD).
The trust audit reads structural markers. It can't read intent. A site with excellent structural trust signals can still sell fake goods or run a long-con. The audit's job is to flag the obvious — domains with the structural profile of a scam — so you can focus deeper checks where they matter.
Want the technical detail? See the Trust Audit Guide — every signal explained with weights and methodology. Want to see a real audit? See the Example Report showing the BBC scored 83/100. Want to fix issues on your own site? See the Trust Audit Fixes index for step-by-step remediation for every check.
Free account, £1.99 per audit, results in 15-20 seconds.
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