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Editorial policy
How the checklists are written, sourced, dated and corrected.
Sources come first
Every check rests on at least one primary document: the search engine's own documentation, a published standard, or the documentation of the vocabulary involved. The current list of publishers is: Google Search Central, IETF (RFC Editor), sitemaps.org, Schema.org, web.dev. Each check names its sources at the end of the item, and each checklist ends with the full list it uses.
The text is written in original words. It summarises and applies the sources rather than quoting them. Where a source states a number, such as a size limit or a threshold, the checklist uses that number and names the source; it does not add numbers of its own.
What does not count as a source
Industry surveys, ranking-factor studies, tool vendor claims and anecdotes are not used as the basis for a check. They can be useful elsewhere, but a checklist item should be something you can verify against the system's documented behaviour.
No outcome claims
The checklists describe how to remove avoidable technical problems. They do not claim that any check will improve rankings or traffic, and nothing on the site should be read as a promise of results.
How AI assistance was used
The first edition was drafted with an AI model working from the named documents, then checked against this policy. It has not yet been reviewed by a human editor, and the site says so on the about page. When a human review is completed, the review date will be added to each checklist.
Dates and changes
Each checklist shows when it was published and when it was last reviewed. A review means the checks were compared with the current version of their sources. Item codes stay stable: if a check is withdrawn its code is retired rather than reused, so links to a specific item stay meaningful.
Corrections
There is no contact route yet, so corrections cannot be sent in. When one exists it will be described here. Until then, if a check disagrees with its source, the source is right.
Links
The site does not currently link to other websites. Sources are named so readers can look up the current version. If outbound links are added later, each one will be chosen because it helps the reader with the item it sits in.
Policy published 2026-10-21, last reviewed 2026-10-21.