Business identity, control 1 of 10
E-01 Do not invent people, qualifications or customer identities
Never present an invented person, synthetic headshot or fictional credential as a real expert or customer. A clearly labelled illustration or character is different from deceptive authorship.
- Priority
- Gate. A FAIL stops publish or launch.
- Hard gate
- Yes. A FAIL stops publication, whatever the score.
- Change class
- EVIDENCE_REQUIRED: Authoritative facts must be supplied.
- Quality bucket
- Business identity
Why it matters
Readers rely on author details to judge whether advice is trustworthy, so an invented expert or a synthetic face is a direct deception. Google's guidance on helpful, people-first content and its ProfilePage documentation both assume that the people shown are real. Fabricated personas put the whole site's credibility at risk, which matters most where the content is relied upon.
Evidence to review
- Identity and role records, author-page review and claim verification.
How to implement
- Verify names, roles and claimed qualifications.
- Use a real organisation or editorial team when individual authorship is inappropriate.
- Keep any AI avatar transparently separate from evidence of expertise.
How UltimateSEO checks this
Needs your evidence. No automated check covers this control, so it stays UNKNOWN until evidence is supplied.
Evidence needed: confirmation that every named author, reviewer and credential belongs to a real person or real editorial entity.
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 v4.3, catalogue dated 2026-10-14. Evidence states, control states and the publish gate are explained on the hub.