Guide · Website checks
Review a page before publishing a change
Review a draft for a real customer task, supported claims, duplication and published-page accuracy before changing the live site.
Start with a customer task
Name the decision the visitor needs to make. A page should leave that visitor better informed, rather than merely cover a list of phrases.
A product page should explain the item. Choose the task before you plan headings or length, because more words alone don't make an explanation useful.
Write the task as one sentence, such as a homeowner deciding whether you cover their town. Then write the next step you want the reader to be able to take. Each section of the page should help with one or the other.
If the page tries to serve two quite different tasks, consider splitting it. A page that answers one question well is easier to review than one that half answers three.
Check every business fact
Trace changing facts to their current reference. Leave uncertain qualifications, service areas and availability unresolved until someone responsible confirms them.
Keep dates for hours, availability and service limits. An attractive description is a problem if it confidently states something the business can't support.
A simple table helps. List each fact, the record it comes from, the person who owns that record and the date you checked it. Anything without an owner stays out of the draft until someone confirms it.
Look hardest at facts that change. Prices, opening hours, stock, staff names and service areas go stale faster than a description of what you do.
Some facts depend on a condition, such as a minimum order or a booking lead time. Keep the condition in the same sentence as the fact.
Check claims as well as facts
Review the implication of a claim as well as its individual words. A cautious phrase can still suggest an outcome the business cannot support.
A comparison with a named competitor needs current, like-for-like facts about both businesses. If you can't keep that comparison accurate, describe your own offer instead.
Reviews and ratings quoted on the page need their source and date. Quote them as written, and don't trim a review so it says more than the customer did.
When a claim can't be supported, cut it or replace it with the fact behind it. A plain statement of what you do is easier to check than an adjective.
Use a helpful structure
Google encourages helpful content written for people. Put the direct explanation near the question it answers and use headings that describe the real subject.
Keep qualifications beside the statement they limit. A reader shouldn't have to open several sections to find out the service doesn't cover their situation.
Lead each section with the answer, then give the detail that supports it. A reader skimming the first line of each section should still come away with the main facts.
Use a table when a reader needs to compare options, and a short list when the order of steps matters. Keep paragraphs short enough that each one carries a single point.
Ask Google's own questions of the draft
Google publishes a set of self-assessment questions for content. Several of them work well as a final check on a business page before the owner sees it.
Does the main heading give a descriptive, helpful summary of the page without exaggerating? Does the page contain any easily verified factual errors? Would a reader leave feeling they learned enough to reach their goal?
Google also lists warning signs. One is writing to a particular word count, and Google says it has no preferred word count. Another is content that leaves readers needing to search again for better information.
Google calls the question of why content exists perhaps the most important one. Its answer is that content should be created primarily to help people.
Show a useful example
Use an example that demonstrates a decision or check. Label fictional details and do not present an illustration as customer experience.
If you use a real result, keep the business's permission and the supporting record with it. Don't invent a customer quote. An example should help the reader understand the task.
A good example names the situation, the detail that mattered and what the reader should take from it. Keep it short, and put it next to the point it illustrates.
Avoid examples that only show the business at its best. An example that shows a limit, such as a job you don't take on, can help a reader decide sooner.
Review a set of similar pages together
Sometimes the change is a set of pages, such as one per town or one per service. Review the set as a whole before reviewing each page.
Google's spam policies describe scaled content abuse. That is many pages generated mainly to manipulate search results rather than to help users, however the pages are made.
Ask what each page tells a reader that the others don't. If two pages differ only by a town name, consider one page that lists the areas you cover, with real detail for each.
Keep a list of the pages in the set, with the owner of each and the date it was last checked. A set that grows without a list is hard to keep accurate.
Keep important limits even if they lengthen the text. A short page can be complete, and a long one can still leave the question unanswered if it circles one claim.
Watch for wording copied across many pages, such as the same opening paragraph on each service page. A reader moving between pages meets it again and again. Write each page's opening for its own task.
Read the page aloud once. Repetition and sentences that run on are easier to hear than to see.
Check the reading experience
Review the page on a narrow screen and with the keyboard. Check link labels, headings and any table, and ask whether the important text reads fine without an animation.
Keep your testing notes with the proposed change. Good presentation helps people use the explanation, but it doesn't make an assistant cite it.
Check that images carrying information have text alternatives that say what they show. Prices or opening hours shown only inside an image are hard for some readers and some software to use.
Check the page with images slow to load or turned off. The key facts should still be readable as text.
Keep structured data matched to the page
Structured data is code that describes the page in a standard format that software reads directly. If the page carries it, review it with the same care as the visible text.
Google's structured data policies say not to mark up content that is not visible to readers of the page. They also say structured data must be a true representation of the page content.
Google's guidance on AI Overviews lists making sure structured data matches the visible text on the page.
Check that software can reach and read the page
A page that people can read may still be hard for software to fetch. Google's guidance on AI Overviews says the usual search basics remain worthwhile.
They include allowing crawling in robots.txt and in any delivery network or hosting set-up, and linking to the page from elsewhere on your site. They also include keeping important content available as text.
Check each of these for the page under review. A new page with no links from the rest of the site is easy to miss, for readers and for crawlers alike.
Google points to the URL Inspection tool in Search Console for seeing the HTML that Googlebot received when it crawled a page. The owner or web developer can run that check.
Date the change honestly
If the page shows an updated date, change it only when the content changed in substance. Record what changed beside the new date in your own notes.
Google lists changing the date of pages to seem fresh, when the content has not substantially changed, as a warning sign. It lists adding or removing lots of content mainly to make a site seem fresh as another, and says that doesn't work.
A small correction, such as new opening hours, is still a real change. Date it, and keep the old wording in your records.
Review after publication
Open the public page and follow its main links. Record the actual revision and any remaining issue separately from the later search outcome.
Keep this page review apart from any later AI answer observation, and if the answer changes, record what changed. A clearer page helps readers whatever the AI answers do.
Check the page on a phone and a computer, and follow each link once. If the page carries structured data, test it again after publication, because a template change can alter it.
Compare the live text with the agreed proposal line by line. Small differences creep in when wording is pasted into a website editor, such as a lost line break or a missing qualification.
Put the proposal in one place. Include the current wording, the proposed wording, the sources for each fact and the open questions. The owner can then review it without hunting through messages.
Say which parts need the owner's decision and which are routine corrections. That helps the owner spend time where judgement is needed.
A worked example
Fern Workshop reviews a service page. The draft repeats a claim but leaves the service area unclear.
| Detail | Observation | Review or next step |
|---|---|---|
| Repeated text | Two paragraphs make the same unsupported claim. | Cut the repetition without dropping a relevant limit. |
| Missing detail | A reader can't tell which areas the business serves. | Ask the owner to confirm the area before you write the wording. |
Cutting the repetition makes room for the missing service detail. The owner has to confirm it before it goes public.
Common questions
Should I make every page longer?
No. Add information that answers the reader's question and remove repetition, but keep relevant limits.
Who puts a proposed change live?
The website owner publishes it. Carqo agents do not write to customer websites.
Should I make every page longer?
No. Add information that answers the reader's question and remove repetition, but keep relevant limits.
Who puts a proposed change live?
The website owner publishes it. Carqo agents do not write to customer websites.
Check your understanding
Who publishes a prepared website change?
Read the answer and explanation
- The website owner.
- A Carqo agent writing to the customer site.
- The business in the example.
Answer. The website owner.
The owner puts the change live. Carqo agents do not write to customer websites.
Answer and explanation
The website owner.
The owner puts the change live. Carqo agents do not write to customer websites.
Your next steps
Sources and method
A Carqo review method. Provider statements link to the relevant documentation.
- Google guidance on helpful content Link checked 4 November 2026
- Google spam policies for web search Link checked 4 November 2026
- Google introduction to structured data Link checked 4 November 2026
- Google structured data policies Link checked 4 November 2026
- Google guidance on AI features Link checked 4 November 2026