Business identity, control 9 of 10
E-09 Keep commercial facts current at the point of decision
Critical commercial facts must match the source of truth at publication and remain maintained. Unknown information must not become a public estimate without clear qualification.
- 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
Shoppers who see one price on a page and another at checkout, or who find an item advertised that is out of stock, lose trust and often leave. Search engines and AI answer engines that read the page, schema and feed can find conflicting facts and show outdated or wrong offers. Tying everything to one source keeps what people are told in line with what the business actually sells.
Evidence to review
- Catalog or pricing records, comparison snapshots and approved transaction tests.
How to implement
- Link pages, markup and feeds to authoritative data where possible.
- Specify currency, billing, tax basis and offer conditions.
- Set freshness limits based on business volatility.
- Test a real quote or purchase path without making an unauthorised commitment.
How UltimateSEO checks this
Needs your evidence. No automated check covers this control, so it stays UNKNOWN until evidence is supplied.
Evidence needed: the source-of-truth system for price, stock, availability and service scope and proof that published values match it.
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.