Business identity, control 6 of 10
E-06 Make ownership, contact and commercial relationships clear
Users should be able to identify the operator, contact it and understand material commercial relationships. An attractive footer is not proof that these facts are correct.
- Priority
- High priority.
- 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
When visitors cannot tell who is behind a site or how to reach them, trust drops and so does the chance of a sale or enquiry. Hidden affiliate or sponsor relationships make content look like independent advice when it is not. Search engines and AI answer engines look for clear signs of a real, accountable operator, and Google's guidance on helpful content and link qualification points the same way.
Evidence to review
- Business identity records, live pages and disclosure review.
How to implement
- Align About, Contact and policy pages with verified business records.
- Explain legal/trading-name relationships and relevant terms.
- Disclose sponsorship and affiliate relationships where material and follow applicable rules.
- Do not publish copied legal promises the business cannot fulfil.
How UltimateSEO checks this
Partly automated. The scan records page signals, but a passing signal is kept as information: contextual or account evidence is still needed to establish the control.
The check looks at: the crawler checks that about, contact and privacy or terms pages are reachable and that a company identity line (including a UK company number pattern) appears in the footer; commercial disclosures are reviewed by a person.
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.