Quality and evidence, control 11 of 15
Q-11 Substantiate first-hand experience
Do not say a product was tested, a place visited or a service implemented unless that experience occurred and can be supported.
- Priority
- High priority.
- Hard gate
- No
- Change class
- EVIDENCE_REQUIRED: Authoritative facts must be supplied.
- Quality bucket
- Original, non-commodity value
Why it matters
Readers lose trust quickly when a claim of hands-on testing turns out to rest on stock images or nothing at all. Search engines and AI answer engines look for real experience, and unsupported claims of it undermine the page. Evidence is what separates genuine first-hand work from a claim of it.
Evidence to review
- Experience record linked to the precise claim, with private details redacted.
How to implement
- Retain dated screenshots, photographs, logs or project records.
- Identify who performed the work and under what conditions.
- Label simulations and generated illustrations; stock or AI imagery must not impersonate evidence.
How UltimateSEO checks this
Needs your evidence. No automated check covers this control, so it stays UNKNOWN until evidence is supplied.
Evidence needed: proof (photos, logs, samples, records) behind any first-hand experience claim.
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.