methodology / Email & Communications / #78
Free-email exposure on contact page (gmail/yahoo/outlook visible)
#78 · Recommended · Web Quality · weighted · Email & Communications · weight 0.7% · impl implemented · method v1.2.0
Web Quality factor
This factor is part of Web Quality — the weighted 0..100 score that sits above Web Standards. Its weight depends on what kind of site is being measured. Web Standards items take priority; this factor only enters the score once Web Standards passes.
- Base weight
- 0.0 applied to every site type unless overridden below
- Why this weight
- Free-email exposure on contact page — borderline professionalism check, not a web-standards grade. A site that uses gmail/yahoo for support contact isn't violating any web standard. Informational only.
What this means for your business
Listing a Gmail, Yahoo, or Outlook address on your contact page makes your business look smaller and less established than it really is. A simple address at your own domain — even if it just forwards to that same inbox — instantly looks more legitimate.
Plain title: Your contact page uses your business email
What we measure
Even if your business has a domain email, free email addresses anywhere on your site (your old gmail, the bookkeeper's yahoo) leak the impression of an unprofessional operation. We flag every visible address that doesn't end in your domain.
How to improve your score
Audit homepage, About, Contact, Team pages. Replace any `name@gmail.com` with `name@yourdomain.com`. If you must use external email forwarding, mask the destination.
Facts
Implementation notes
Crawl homepage + /contact + /about, extract `mailto:` and obvious email regex matches. Bucket by domain (own / freemail / unknown).
Scoring
Scoring formulas are versioned with the methodology. The current method (v1.2.0) maps raw measurements to pass, warn, fail. Factor weights determine how much each contributes to the composite — see the methodology index for the full table.
Version history
| Version | Change | Date |
|---|---|---|
| v1.2.0 | Factor introduced. Status: live. Scoring impl: implemented. | 2026-04-25 |