serp-trust-auditor

SERP-TRUST Auditor

Executive Summary

The SERP-TRUST framework is a 50-item proprietary scoring system that measures how much Google trusts a domain to appear and rank in competitive search results. Trust is distinct from authority — a site can have high Domain Rating (authority) but low SERP trust due to thin content, missing schema, poor CWV, or inconsistent NAP signals. In 2025–2026, SERP trust has a direct AI visibility component: Google's AI Overviews and third-party LLMs (ChatGPT, Perplexity) apply their own trust filters before citing sources. Sites scoring <50 on SERP-TRUST are rarely cited in AI answers regardless of organic ranking. The framework evaluates 5 dimensions: Technical Foundation (T), Ranking Signals (R), User Experience (U), Search Authority (S), and Trust & AI Readiness (A) — 10 items × 4-point scale per dimension = 200 raw points, normalized to 0–100.

2025 SERP-TRUST benchmarks:

• Overall score ≥80: competitive (citeable by AI Overviews); ≥90: market leader
• Technical Foundation: HTTPS enforced, INP <200ms (replaced FID March 2024), no crawl errors
• Ranking Signals: pillar pages with Surfer Score ≥80, FAQPage schema on all service pages
• User Experience: Core Web Vitals all "Good" (LCP <2.5s, INP <200ms, CLS <0.1)
• Search Authority: Domain Rating ≥30 for local; TF:CF ratio ≥0.5; branded anchor 50–60%
• Trust & AI Readiness: Organization schema + sameAs on homepage; GBP verified; 5+ review platforms
• Veto rule: any single Critical failure (e.g., active manual action, no HTTPS, score = 0 on T dimension) caps total score at ≤40 regardless of other dimensions

Numbered Action Plan:

Immediate (Week 1, High Impact/Low Effort)

1. Validate all Technical Foundation items — run python3 scripts/check_url.py --url [URL] --full for HTTPS, redirect chain, TTFB. Run Lighthouse → record LCP, INP, CLS scores. Effort: 30 min. Priority: 25.
2. Check for critical veto triggers — active manual actions (GSC), HTTP accessible URL, 4xx/5xx homepage, no HTTPS = automatic score cap. Effort: 10 min.
3. Score all 50 items — work through each dimension in order (T→R→U→S→A), applying 0–4 scale. Note evidence for every score ≠ 4. Effort: 1–2 hrs. Use python3 scripts/score_calculator.py --st to compute.
4. Identify veto check failures — each dimension has a veto check that caps the dimension score. Flag any failures immediately as Critical blockers. Effort: 15 min.
5. Generate competitor comparison — score at least 2 top competitors on the same 50 items (abbreviated: focus on T and A dimensions). Gap = priority list. Effort: 45 min/competitor.

Short-Term (Week 2–4)

1. Fix all T dimension failures first — Technical Foundation is the prerequisite layer; fixing T items produces the highest dimension ROI. Target: T dimension score ≥8/10 (80%) before moving to other dimensions. Effort: varies.
2. Add missing structured data — Organization schema (homepage), LocalBusiness subtype (homepage), FAQPage (all service pages), HowTo (process pages). Effort: 2–4 hrs.
3. Improve UX dimension — fix largest CWV failures first: LCP (often image optimization or render-blocking resources), INP (event listener optimization), CLS (reserve space for images/embeds). Effort: 4–8 hrs dev.
4. Build Trust & AI Readiness — verify GBP, claim all sameAs properties, add review widget with AggregateRating schema, add author bylines with Person schema. Effort: 2–4 hrs.
5. Write SERP-TRUST findings to {AUDIT_DIR}/serp-trust-scores.md — YAML frontmatter + full 50-item scorecard + Priority Matrix + competitor comparison. Run python3 scripts/score_calculator.py --st to generate final score. Effort: 1 hr.

Output files:

• {AUDIT_DIR}/serp-trust-scores.md — 50-item scorecard with scores and evidence
• {REPORTS_DIR}/serp-trust-score.pdf — auto-generated PDF via python3 scripts/generate_pdf.py

Prerequisites

Before scoring, confirm you have:

• [ ] Website URL (must be accessible — run python3 scripts/check_url.py --url [URL] --full)
• [ ] Target keywords (minimum 5 — from {AUDIT_DIR}/keyword-gaps.md or {AUDIT_DIR}/intake-data.md)
• [ ] At least 3 competitor URLs (from {AUDIT_DIR}/competitor-profiles.md)
• [ ] Target location(s) for local context

If any are missing, collect them before proceeding.

Tools for this phase: | Dimension | Key Tools | Purpose | |-----------|----------|---------| | T — Technical | Screaming Frog, Google Rich Results Test, GSC URL Inspection, Lighthouse | Crawl, schema, CWV | | R — Ranking | Ahrefs, SEMrush, GSC Performance, Surfer SEO | Keywords, content quality | | U — UX/Performance | PageSpeed Insights, Lighthouse, Microsoft Clarity | CWV, mobile, accessibility | | S — Authority | Ahrefs (DR, RD), Majestic (TF/CF), SEMrush Backlink Audit | Link profile | | T2 — Trust/AI | Google Search (AIO), ChatGPT, Perplexity, Brand24, Wikidata | AI visibility, entity |

2025 SERP-TRUST Context:

• INP replaced FID as Core Web Vital (March 2024) — target <200ms (Good: <100ms)
• AI Overviews (AIO) appear for 20–35% of local queries — T2 dimension captures this
• Schema completeness is both a Technical (T) AND Trust (T2) signal in 2025
• FAQPage schema = primary AIO citation trigger — assess in both T and T2
• Helpful Content System folded into core algorithm March 2024 — content quality now a direct ranking signal in R dimension

Framework Reference

Load the complete scoring rubric from references/serp-trust-benchmark.md.

Framework: SERP-TRUST (Search Engine Results Page — Technical Reliability, User Signals & Search Trust) Items: 50 | Scale: 0–4 per item | Max Raw: 200 | Normalized: 0–100

Scoring Dimensions

| Code | Dimension | Items | Max | Key Signals | |------|-----------|-------|-----|------------| | T | Technical Foundation | 10 | 40 | HTTPS, robots.txt, sitemap, canonicals, schema, CWV, JS rendering | | R | Ranking Signals | 10 | 40 | Title/H1 optimization, content depth, E-E-A-T, internal linking, freshness | | U | User Experience & Performance | 10 | 40 | LCP <1.8s, INP <100ms, CLS <0.05, mobile UX, accessibility | | S | Search Authority | 10 | 40 | DR/TF, referring domains, anchor distribution, topical authority | | T2 | Trust & AI Readiness | 10 | 40 | AIO citations, Knowledge Panel, schema, reviews, entity signals |

Execution Process

Step 1: Research Phase (30–45 min)

Gather evidence for each dimension BEFORE scoring:

T — Technical Foundation

1. Fetch [domain]/robots.txt — check for blocks and sitemap declaration
2. Fetch /sitemap.xml — validate exists, has correct URLs, accurate lastmod
3. Check SSL: curl -I https://[domain] — verify HTTPS, HSTS header
4. Run Google Rich Results Test on homepage + 2 service pages — count schema types
5. GSC URL Inspection → "Test Live URL" → View Rendered HTML (JS rendering check)
6. Screaming Frog crawl → canonical tags, redirect chains, orphan pages

R — Ranking Signals

1. GSC Performance → top 20 queries — check CTR vs. benchmark (target >3% for branded)
2. Ahrefs → Organic Keywords — list top 10 ranking pages and their primary keywords
3. Manual check title + H1 alignment on each top-5 pages
4. Screaming Frog → Content → word count per page type (service ≥800, blog ≥1,200)
5. Surfer SEO side-by-side vs. top competitor on 2 key service pages

U — User Experience & Performance

1. PageSpeed Insights → Mobile: record LCP, INP, CLS, TTFB scores for homepage
2. PageSpeed Insights → Mobile: record same for top service page
3. Lighthouse → Accessibility score (target ≥90)
4. Mobile viewport test at 375px — horizontal scroll? tap targets ≥44px?
5. Microsoft Clarity or Hotjar: any rage-click or dead-click patterns? (if access)

S — Search Authority

1. Ahrefs → Domain Rating (DR) vs. competitors — note gap
2. Ahrefs → Referring Domains count + % from niche-relevant sites
3. Majestic → Trust Flow / Citation Flow ratio (TF:CF target ≥0.5)
4. Ahrefs