Quality and evidence · Branch Q.B, Accuracy and evidence chain
Q-05 Critical factual claims must be verified before publication
Price, date, regulation, technical specification and numerical claims must not be published until they are verified against a reliable source or first-party measurement.
- Scope
- All public content
- Priority
- Gate. A FAIL stops publish or launch.
- Quality bucket
- Accuracy and evidence chain
- Legacy coverage
- SEO-06
Why it matters
A wrong price, date, regulation or specification misleads readers who may act on it, and it damages trust in the whole site. Google's guidance on people-first content stresses accuracy and trustworthiness. AI answer engines can also repeat an unverified claim as if it were fact.
How to implement
- Start a source ledger for every critical claim.
- Verify product claims against the exact model or SKU.
- Add a checked date wherever the information can change.
- Open each source and confirm it really supports the claim before publishing.
Checklist
- Keep a source ledger for critical claims.
- For products, verify by exact model or SKU.
- Add a checked date to information that changes.
- Check that the source genuinely supports the claim.
How to audit
- Build a claim ledger with the fields URL, claim, source URL, checked_at and reviewer.
How UltimateSEO checks this automatically
This control needs human evidence: the pre-publication fact check record for critical claims on the page.
States used: PASS, FAIL, UNKNOWN, NOT_APPLICABLE or BLOCKED. UNKNOWN is never shown as a pass. How states work.
Sources
Part of The UltimateSEO Framework v4.1, revised 2026-10-07. Evidence states, control states and the publish gate are explained on the hub.