Are Privacy Policy or T&C pages quality factors?

[followgreg]

Hi,

There was an interesting thread not long ago about quality factors and follow up with the subject I was wondering:

>> In your opinion should a privacy policy or a terms and condition be linked from all pages of a website? or especially on a homepage or subpages?

Usually these are pages I use to place on a sitemap only. I don't find them relevant to place on a homepage for example, in addition it would be another link so I am not sure about benefits vs. risks.

Any opinion?

[nonni]

It depends on the site. If you do ecommerce or have any type of data that could be considered sensitive, then privacy policy, terms, and other important conditions should be easy to find. If you have a hobby site about stamps or photos of nice landscapes, then you would want copyright information to be readily accessible but might not need a privacy page.

Some people have suggested that maybe the search engines reward a privacy policy or this or that type of page in the menus. Who knows? I think it is better to think about the user needs, and the needs of the business.

[CainIV]

I have always found T & P pages to add value and to add a sense of 'trustability' with any domain. I know If I am reviewing a website I always look to see that those pages are completed on the website. A contact page with physical address or phone number is also important.

[followgreg]

I agree with you CainIV however should links to PP and TC be all over the site or would it be ok to have them only in the sitemap for example? or is it important to have them on a homepage?
Maybe I am thinking too much.

[Kurgano]

You're thinking too much, there is no rule on where they must be because every site is different in some way.

Where would you reasonably expect to find it on your site? Thats where it needs to be.

Personaly I don't think it matters, from a functionality point of view, if you place it on the first page or site wide in the footer as long as its blocked via a "robots.txt" exclusion. Theres no need for the net to index it.