Turn SEO tasks into evidence, ownership, and pass-or-fail decisions

This page is for physiotherapy owners, practice managers, marketers, and web teams who need an auditable way to decide whether search work is actually complete. Each check should end with evidence in a ticket, shared document, or operating log; a named owner; a pass-or-fail decision; a corrective action when the evidence does not meet the condition; and a recorded validation after the change.

A small practice can use the same method without an agency. If the team can devote 2-3 hours per week, prioritize higher-severity failures first and keep unresolved items open rather than marking work complete from memory. Teams diagnosing existing visibility problems can pair this checklist with the technical visibility audit guide, while privacy and accessibility decisions should be cross-checked with the website privacy and accessibility guide.

Use jurisdiction and service reality as constraints. A location-specific page is appropriate only when the practice genuinely operates in that location and can provide useful, location-specific information. Do not create nominal market pages merely to repeat the same service copy.

Foundation work should establish reliable public practice information, crawlable pages, usable mobile experiences, and trustworthy measurement. The robots.txt reference can help when a crawl-control decision needs explanation. The checks below are operating controls, not promises of ranking improvement.

Practice profile and local data

• Google Business Profile ownership. Evidence required: account access and the live profile for each genuine practice location. Pass/fail condition: pass when the correct organization controls each applicable profile and the listing represents a real patient-facing location; fail when ownership is unknown, duplicated, or tied to a non-operating address. Severity: high. Owner: practice manager. Corrective action: recover access, resolve duplicates, or update the profile to the actual operating entity. Validation step: open the live profile while signed out and compare it with practice records.
• Core profile facts. Evidence required: current practice name, address, phone, hours, and the available category choices. Pass/fail condition: pass when public facts match the practice's current records and the selected category accurately describes the service; fail when a field is stale, misleading, or unsupported. Severity: high. Owner: practice manager. Corrective action: correct the mismatched fields and choose the closest accurate category available. Validation step: compare the live profile with the website contact page and front-desk records.
• Profile imagery. Evidence required: an approved media set showing the practice, staff, or rooms without exposing protected patient information. Pass/fail condition: pass when every published image is accurate, appropriate, and cleared under the practice's privacy process; fail when patient information or unapproved people are visible. Severity: high. Owner: practice manager with privacy reviewer. Corrective action: remove unapproved media and replace it with cleared assets. Validation step: review the public gallery against the approved media register.
• Contact and booking features. Evidence required: a live test of any messaging or appointment link the practice chooses to enable. Pass/fail condition: pass when the feature routes to an actively monitored, privacy-appropriate workflow and accurately represents availability; fail when messages are unmonitored or the destination is broken. Severity: medium. Owner: operations lead. Corrective action: fix the routing, update availability, or disable the feature until it can be supported. Validation step: complete a non-patient test inquiry and confirm receipt.
• Telehealth representation. Evidence required: service records showing whether virtual physiotherapy is actually offered where the patient is located. Pass/fail condition: pass when the profile mentions telehealth only where the practice can lawfully and operationally provide it; fail when the service is listed without support. Severity: high. Owner: clinical operations lead. Corrective action: remove unsupported wording or obtain reviewer approval for accurate language. Validation step: compare the live profile with the current service catalog and jurisdiction review.

Citation consistency

• Name, address, and phone consistency. Evidence required: a citation inventory covering Google, Apple Maps, Bing, the website, and relevant healthcare or regional directories such as Physiopedia or Zocdoc where applicable. Pass/fail condition: pass when core contact facts are consistent or intentionally documented where a platform requires a different format; fail when stale information could misdirect a patient. Severity: high. Owner: local search owner. Corrective action: update or suppress inaccurate entries. Validation step: recheck each live listing after the platform processes the change.
• Directory relevance. Evidence required: a list of directories selected because they are relevant to the practice, profession, or locality. Pass/fail condition: pass when submissions are limited to legitimate, useful directories with accurate practice data; fail when the plan relies on indiscriminate directory volume. Severity: medium. Owner: local search owner. Corrective action: stop low-value submissions and correct inaccurate entries. Validation step: sample the resulting listings for accuracy and user usefulness.
• Outdated listing control. Evidence required: a log of moved, closed, renamed, or duplicate listings. Pass/fail condition: pass when outdated records are corrected, merged, or documented for follow-up; fail when an obsolete record remains likely to confuse patients. Severity: high. Owner: practice manager. Corrective action: submit the appropriate platform correction and retain the case reference. Validation step: verify the public result after resolution.

Technical evidence

• Performance baseline. Evidence required: current Google PageSpeed Insights and GTmetrix reports for representative mobile pages. Pass/fail condition: for this checklist, pass the internal benchmark when the retained mobile score is above 85 and no severe usability defect blocks a patient task; this is an operating threshold, not a Google ranking rule. Severity: medium. Owner: web lead. Corrective action: address the report's concrete rendering, asset, or loading issues in priority order. Validation step: rerun the same pages under comparable conditions.
• Mobile rendering and indexing. Evidence required: Search Console inspection plus a hands-on mobile review of representative service, contact, and booking pages. Pass/fail condition: pass when key content renders, links work, and important pages are indexable as intended; fail when content is hidden, blocked, or unusable. Severity: high. Owner: web lead. Corrective action: fix responsive layout, crawl controls, or indexing directives that do not match intent. Validation step: repeat inspection and the mobile task flow.
• Structured data accuracy. Evidence required: the deployed LocalBusiness or MedicalBusiness markup and a validator result. Pass/fail condition: pass when markup reflects visible, truthful page content and validates without material errors; fail when properties are fabricated, contradictory, or technically invalid. Severity: medium. Owner: web lead. Corrective action: remove unsupported properties and repair syntax. Validation step: validate the live page again. Structured data may help machines understand page entities, but it is not documented here as a guaranteed ranking factor.
• Measurement access. Evidence required: working Google Analytics 4 access and Search Console access for the correct property. Pass/fail condition: pass when authorized staff can inspect current acquisition and search data without relying on an unowned account; fail when the property is missing, duplicated, or inaccessible. Severity: medium. Owner: analytics owner. Corrective action: fix property ownership, tagging, or access. Validation step: confirm fresh test activity and Search Console property access.
• XML sitemap control. Evidence required: the live sitemap, its Search Console submission status, and a sample of included URLs. Pass/fail condition: pass when the sitemap resolves, contains the intended canonical pages, and does not systematically include blocked or irrelevant URLs; fail when it is missing, stale, or misleading. Severity: medium. Owner: web lead. Corrective action: regenerate or reconfigure the sitemap and resubmit it. Validation step: inspect the processed sitemap and sample URLs after the update.

Content work should answer real physiotherapy search questions without turning an editorial page into a diagnosis, prognosis, or guaranteed outcome. Use search data, front-desk questions, service reality, and clinician review to decide what deserves publication.

Topic selection and information architecture

• Search-question inventory. Evidence required: a documented set of 10-15 high-intent queries drawn from Search Console, patient-facing staff input, and observed search suggestions, including questions about services, cost, referrals, and local availability. Pass/fail condition: pass when each topic maps to a real service or informational need the practice can answer responsibly; fail when topics are chosen only for traffic potential or imply services the practice does not offer. Severity: high. Owner: content lead with clinician reviewer. Corrective action: remove unsupported topics and replace them with evidenced patient questions. Validation step: review the list against the current service catalog and search data.
• Primary treatment-area resources. Evidence required: an editorial map connecting major practice services to a substantial patient-facing resource. Pass/fail condition: pass when each resource explains who the service may be relevant to, what an appointment can involve, limits of the page, and when individualized assessment is appropriate; fail when it overstates outcomes or substitutes generic condition copy for practice-specific information. Severity: high. Owner: content lead. Corrective action: rewrite for service accuracy and obtain clinical review. Validation step: compare the published page with the approved service description.
• Supporting-question coverage. Evidence required: an editorial plan containing 2-3 useful supporting pieces for each priority resource where distinct patient questions justify separate pages. Pass/fail condition: pass when each supporting piece has a distinct intent and avoids duplicating the main page; fail when pages exist only to vary keywords. Severity: medium. Owner: content lead. Corrective action: consolidate duplicates or assign a clearer patient question. Validation step: review the planned titles and search intent side by side.
• Internal navigation. Evidence required: a crawl or manual link map connecting relevant supporting content, service pages, location information, and contact paths. Pass/fail condition: pass when links help a reader move to the next relevant resource with descriptive anchor text; fail when important pages are isolated or anchors misdescribe destinations. Severity: medium. Owner: content lead. Corrective action: add or revise contextual links. Validation step: click-test links and rerun the internal-link review.

Patient stories and endorsement controls

• Authorization record. Evidence required: the practice's documented approval or authorization record for any patient story before publication. Pass/fail condition: pass when the responsible privacy or legal reviewer confirms the disclosure is permitted for the intended use; fail when the team relies on informal permission or cannot produce the record. Severity: critical. Owner: privacy or compliance lead. Corrective action: withhold the story until the required approval is documented. Validation step: reconcile the live content with the approved record.
• Identity minimization. Evidence required: the approved public version of the story and the underlying authorization. Pass/fail condition: pass when identifiers are limited to what the approval permits and are necessary for the published purpose; fail when extra identifying details appear without a reviewed basis. Severity: critical. Owner: privacy reviewer. Corrective action: remove or generalize unauthorized identifying details. Validation step: perform a line-by-line privacy check before republishing.
• Outcome wording. Evidence required: source material and clinician review for any outcome statement. Pass/fail condition: pass when a statement such as 'returned to running after 8 weeks' or a patient-reported score described as '8/10 to 3/10' is clearly attributed, contextually accurate, and not presented as typical or guaranteed; fail when an anecdote is converted into a clinical promise. Severity: critical. Owner: clinician reviewer with content lead. Corrective action: add attribution and context or remove the claim. Validation step: compare the final wording with the underlying approved source.
• Endorsement-rule review. Evidence required: a current reviewer note addressing whether 16 CFR 255 and any applicable state professional-advertising rules affect the testimonial or case study. Pass/fail condition: pass when material connections and required disclosures are handled as the responsible reviewer directs; fail when the practice publishes without resolving that review. Severity: high. Owner: legal or compliance reviewer. Corrective action: revise disclosure and testimonial language. Validation step: obtain approval on the exact public version.
• Record retention. Evidence required: a controlled repository for approvals and source records separate from public page copy. Pass/fail condition: pass when the practice can retrieve the governing record for each published patient story; fail when proof is scattered or missing. Severity: high. Owner: compliance operations. Corrective action: centralize records using the practice's approved retention process. Validation step: spot-check a published story against the retained record.

On-page editorial checks

• Query-to-page alignment. Evidence required: the target query, page title, opening copy, and headings. Pass/fail condition: as an internal editorial convention, pass when the main topic is naturally clear within the first 100 words and at least one heading where useful; fail when wording is forced, misleading, or absent from the actual answer. Severity: medium. Owner: editor. Corrective action: rewrite for clarity rather than repetition. Validation step: read the page without keyword tools and confirm that its purpose is immediately understandable.
• Search snippet description. Evidence required: the drafted meta description and rendered snippet preview. Pass/fail condition: for this checklist's editorial convention, pass when the description stays under 155 characters, accurately reflects the page, and avoids unsupported benefits; fail when it is misleading or truncated in the team's preview. Severity: low. Owner: editor. Corrective action: shorten and clarify the description. Validation step: rerun the snippet preview; actual search display remains Google's decision.
• Depth based on patient need. Evidence required: the outline and final draft. Pass/fail condition: treat 1,200-1,800 words for a major resource and 600-1,000 for a supporting resource as planning ranges only; pass when the page answers the intended question completely without filler, and fail when length substitutes for usefulness. Severity: medium. Owner: content lead. Corrective action: add missing decision-useful material or remove repetition. Validation step: compare the final page with the approved question set.
• Readable presentation. Evidence required: desktop and mobile review of paragraphs, headings, lists, and controls. Pass/fail condition: the source convention of 2-3 sentences per paragraph may be used as a readability check, but pass depends on scannability and comprehension rather than a rigid count. Severity: medium. Owner: editor. Corrective action: break dense passages and clarify headings. Validation step: complete a mobile reading pass and accessibility review.

Conversion work should make the next step understandable and usable without overstating care, urgency, or expected results. The practice should test the patient journey and the privacy implications of every contact path.

Appointment pathways

• Primary call to action. Evidence required: screenshots of navigation, representative service pages, and article endings showing the intended appointment or inquiry action. Pass/fail condition: pass when the action is visible, accurately labeled, and leads to the correct destination; fail when it is missing, deceptive, or broken. Severity: high. Owner: web lead. Corrective action: fix placement, wording, or destination. Validation step: complete the flow on desktop and mobile.
• Accessible controls. Evidence required: keyboard, focus, contrast, and text-legibility checks for important calls to action. Pass/fail condition: pass when controls are perceivable and operable under the practice's accessibility testing standard; fail when a patient cannot reliably identify or use them. Severity: high. Owner: accessibility owner. Corrective action: correct design or code defects. Validation step: repeat the failed accessibility test.
• Booking destination. Evidence required: a live test of the booking page or supported practice-management integration, such as Acuity Scheduling or Cliniko when actually used. Pass/fail condition: pass when the destination is secure, current, and consistent with the service offered; fail when it routes incorrectly or asks for information the workflow is not prepared to handle. Severity: high. Owner: operations lead. Corrective action: repair the integration or route to a supported contact method. Validation step: submit a non-patient test through the full flow.

High-intent service pages

• Service-intent coverage. Evidence required: a map of real services to search intents such as lower-back physiotherapy, sports-injury physiotherapy, or pregnancy and postnatal physiotherapy when those services are genuinely offered. Pass/fail condition: pass when each page describes an actual service and avoids unsupported medical conclusions; fail when pages are created for services or locations the practice does not genuinely support. Severity: high. Owner: content lead with clinician reviewer. Corrective action: remove unsupported pages or rewrite them around accurate service information. Validation step: reconcile each page with the current service catalog.
• Decision-useful page elements. Evidence required: the live page showing care-process information, suitable trust information, and a clear contact path. Pass/fail condition: pass when a reader can understand what the practice offers and how to contact it without relying on a testimonial; fail when the page depends on vague claims or lacks a usable next step. Severity: medium. Owner: content lead. Corrective action: add practice-specific process details and an accurate contact action. Validation step: perform a fresh-user review.
• Message testing. Evidence required: a documented hypothesis and comparison data from a permitted testing method, including Google Ads or organic search observations if available. Pass/fail condition: pass when changes are based on recorded data and remain clinically and legally supportable; fail when stronger claims are introduced merely to chase clicks. Severity: medium. Owner: marketing lead. Corrective action: revert unsupported claims and test a clearer factual message. Validation step: review the next measurement period using the same definition.

Review operations

• Fair review requests. Evidence required: the written eligibility rule and request template used for patient feedback. Pass/fail condition: pass when the practice asks eligible patients consistently for honest feedback without incentives, discouraging negative feedback, or selecting only satisfied patients; fail when sentiment determines who receives the request. Severity: high. Owner: practice manager. Corrective action: replace gated workflows with a neutral, consistently applied process. Validation step: sample recent requests against the eligibility rule.
• Review-request timing. Evidence required: workflow documentation showing when and how the request is sent. Pass/fail condition: treat 1-2 days after an eligible interaction as an internal operating example only; pass when timing is consistently applied and the communication method has the required authorization for the jurisdiction and context, and fail when the workflow bypasses those controls. Severity: high. Owner: operations lead. Corrective action: adjust the workflow after privacy and communications review. Validation step: audit a recent batch against the approved rule.
• Review-response handling. Evidence required: timestamps and response samples for public reviews. Pass/fail condition: use 48 hours as an internal service target, not a search-ranking requirement; pass when responses follow the practice's approved privacy-safe process and do not reveal patient information, and fail when responses disclose sensitive details or remain unmanaged beyond the internal target. Severity: high. Owner: reputation owner. Corrective action: revise response templates and escalation rules. Validation step: review a sample of recent responses against the approved standard.
• No incentivized positive reviews. Evidence required: the request template, any reward program terms, and staff instructions. Pass/fail condition: pass when honest feedback is requested without tying a benefit to positive sentiment; fail when the practice offers value in exchange for favorable reviews. Severity: critical. Owner: compliance lead. Corrective action: stop the incentive and replace the request language. Validation step: inspect current campaigns and staff scripts.

Privacy and trust information

• Privacy notice. Evidence required: the live privacy notice and a data-flow inventory for website forms and booking tools. Pass/fail condition: pass when the notice accurately describes the practice's applicable data handling and has been reviewed by the responsible privacy owner; fail when it makes unsupported blanket compliance claims or omits material collection practices. Severity: critical. Owner: privacy lead. Corrective action: reconcile the notice with actual data flows and reviewer guidance. Validation step: retest forms and compare them with the notice.
• Credential accuracy. Evidence required: current professional-registration or certification records for credentials displayed on the site. Pass/fail condition: pass when every public credential is current, accurately scoped, and displayed only where permitted; fail when a credential is expired, ambiguous, or overstated. Severity: high. Owner: practice manager. Corrective action: correct or remove unsupported credential claims. Validation step: reconcile the live page with current records.
• Staff biographies. Evidence required: approved bios and images for staff who appear publicly. Pass/fail condition: pass when biographies are factual, current, and approved; fail when they imply expertise, outcomes, or roles that the records do not support. Severity: medium. Owner: practice manager. Corrective action: update claims and media. Validation step: obtain staff and practice approval on the final public version.

Initial triage window: 1-2 weeks. Use this stage to close failures that can misdirect patients, block discovery, or leave the team unable to measure what is happening.

• Profile accuracy first. Evidence required: the live Google Business Profile and practice records. Pass/fail condition: pass when identity, location, contact, and category data are accurate; fail when a patient could be sent to the wrong information. Severity: high. Owner: practice manager. Corrective action: correct the profile and resolve duplicates. Validation step: compare the public listing with current records.
• Critical mobile and performance defects. Evidence required: mobile task tests plus the retained GTmetrix operating baseline of 50/100. Pass/fail condition: pass when the main patient tasks work and the internal baseline is met or the remaining variance is documented; fail when a technical defect blocks use. Severity: high. Owner: web lead. Corrective action: repair the blocking defect before lower-severity optimization. Validation step: rerun the same task and report.
• Structured-data cleanup. Evidence required: live markup and validation output. Pass/fail condition: pass when markup is valid and accurately reflects visible content; fail when it is fabricated or erroneous. Severity: medium. Owner: web lead. Corrective action: remove unsupported properties and fix syntax. Validation step: revalidate the live page.
• Review-process seed batch. Evidence required: the eligibility rule and the last 20 appointment confirmations used only as an administrative batch. Pass/fail condition: pass when every eligible person in that batch is treated consistently without sentiment screening or incentives; fail when only favorable respondents are selected. Severity: high. Owner: practice manager. Corrective action: replace selective outreach with a neutral rule. Validation step: compare recipients with the full eligible batch.
• Priority patient resource. Evidence required: search-demand evidence, service relevance, and an approved draft for the most important treatment-area question. Pass/fail condition: pass when the resource answers a real patient decision without unsupported claims; fail when it exists only to chase a query. Severity: medium. Owner: content lead with clinician reviewer. Corrective action: revise scope and evidence. Validation step: compare the final page with the approved intent brief.

Second-stage remediation: weeks 3-8. Use this stage for consistency, topic coverage, and internal navigation after urgent foundation failures are controlled.

• Citation reconciliation. Evidence required: a platform-by-platform record of practice name, address, phone, and status. Pass/fail condition: pass when important listings are current or documented as pending correction; fail when unresolved inaccuracies remain unowned. Severity: high. Owner: local search owner. Corrective action: submit corrections and log case references. Validation step: recheck the public listings.
• Supporting content queue. Evidence required: 5-8 approved topic briefs linked to real patient questions and services. Pass/fail condition: pass when each brief has distinct intent, evidence needs, and a reviewer; fail when the queue contains duplicate or clinically unsupported topics. Severity: medium. Owner: content lead. Corrective action: consolidate or rewrite the briefs. Validation step: approve the queue against the content map.
• Internal-link repair. Evidence required: a crawl or manual link map. Pass/fail condition: pass when priority resources are reachable through useful contextual links; fail when relevant pages remain isolated. Severity: medium. Owner: content or web lead. Corrective action: add descriptive internal links. Validation step: rerun the crawl or manual path test.
• Review-response workflow. Evidence required: approved response guidance, ownership, and escalation rules. Pass/fail condition: pass when staff can respond consistently without disclosing patient information; fail when automation could publish unsafe or inappropriate text without review. Severity: high. Owner: reputation owner. Corrective action: disable unsafe automation and require reviewed templates or human approval. Validation step: test the workflow with a non-patient scenario.

Ongoing evidence cycle. Keep monitoring and refresh work tied to observed need rather than an undocumented posting cadence.

• Search Console monitoring. Evidence required: saved reports for indexing, queries, and pages. Pass/fail condition: pass when material errors and opportunities have assigned owners; fail when warnings or visibility changes are ignored without review. Severity: medium. Owner: SEO owner. Corrective action: create tickets for material findings. Validation step: confirm closure in the next review cycle.
• Editorial capacity plan. Evidence required: an approved content queue and reviewer capacity. Pass/fail condition: the source cadence of 1-2 blog posts monthly may be used as a resourcing example, but pass depends on publishing useful, reviewed content when justified rather than meeting a frequency target. Severity: low. Owner: content lead. Corrective action: reduce cadence if quality or review controls slip. Validation step: audit recent publications against the content standard.
• Refresh candidates. Evidence required: Search Console pages associated with queries in positions 5-20 and a change log. Pass/fail condition: pass when refreshes address an evidenced content, intent, or internal-link gap; movement to positions 1-3 is not assumed or promised. Severity: medium. Owner: SEO and content leads. Corrective action: update only the documented gap. Validation step: compare the next measurement window with the same query and page set.
• Inquiry-source measurement. Evidence required: analytics and front-desk source records with definitions for organic search, map discovery, and direct contact. Pass/fail condition: pass when the practice can distinguish sources well enough for directional analysis without overstating attribution; fail when reporting treats uncertain attribution as exact. Severity: medium. Owner: analytics owner. Corrective action: standardize source definitions and tracking. Validation step: reconcile a sample of recorded inquiries.

Escalate when specialist work is the blocker.

• Advanced technical diagnosis. Evidence required: reproducible structured-data, JavaScript-rendering, or crawling failures that the internal team cannot resolve. Pass/fail condition: pass when the issue has a capable owner and a testable remediation plan; fail when a critical defect remains unowned. Severity: high. Owner: technical lead. Corrective action: engage qualified technical support. Validation step: rerun the failing test after remediation.
• Paid-search support. Evidence required: approved advertising goals, budget controls, landing-page review, and compliant ad copy. Pass/fail condition: pass when paid search is managed as a separate acquisition channel with reviewed claims; fail when it is used to mask unresolved website or compliance failures. Severity: medium. Owner: marketing lead. Corrective action: pause unsupported campaigns and repair the underlying issue. Validation step: review live ads and destinations against approvals.
• Large review inventory. Evidence required: a documented process when the practice has 100+ reviews to monitor. Pass/fail condition: pass when ownership, privacy-safe response rules, and escalation are consistently applied; fail when scale leads to unreviewed or inappropriate public responses. Severity: high. Owner: reputation owner. Corrective action: add tooling or qualified support without automating away required judgment. Validation step: sample recent reviews and responses against the policy.

Regulatory and safety-sensitive review should be attached to the work item that creates the risk, not postponed until publication. Applicability varies by jurisdiction, organization, data flow, communication method, and the exact claim being made.

Privacy and patient information

• Patient-information disclosure. Evidence required: the exact content proposed for publication, the data classification, and the responsible privacy review. Pass/fail condition: pass when the reviewer confirms the disclosure is permitted for the intended use and the page contains no unapproved patient information; fail when staff cannot establish the basis for publishing identifiable patient details. Severity: critical. Owner: privacy lead. Corrective action: remove the information or obtain the required reviewed authorization. Validation step: compare the final public copy with the approved disclosure record.
• Consent and authorization records. Evidence required: the form or other legally appropriate record required by the practice's reviewer for the intended use. Pass/fail condition: pass when the record is complete, retrievable, and tied to the exact use; fail when the team relies on informal recollection. Severity: critical. Owner: compliance operations. Corrective action: withhold publication until the correct record exists. Validation step: retrieve and match the record during content approval.
• Form-data transparency. Evidence required: a data-flow map for booking, contact, or assessment forms plus the live privacy notice. Pass/fail condition: pass when collection, sharing, retention, and vendor handling described publicly match actual operations as reviewed; fail when the notice and workflow conflict. Severity: critical. Owner: privacy lead. Corrective action: change the workflow or notice based on reviewer guidance. Validation step: submit a non-patient test and trace the resulting data flow.

Professional advertising and clinical claims

• Licensing-board advertising review. Evidence required: the current advertising rules that apply to the practice and the exact public claim. Pass/fail condition: pass when the responsible reviewer confirms the claim, title, and comparison language are permitted and supportable; fail when terms such as superiority claims or diagnostic implications are used without that support. Severity: critical. Owner: regulatory or legal reviewer. Corrective action: remove or narrow unsupported claims. Validation step: approve the final wording before publication.
• Outcome substantiation. Evidence required: records supporting any stated outcome and clinician review of context. Pass/fail condition: pass when the wording accurately reflects the evidence and does not imply a guaranteed treatment result; fail when anecdote, measurement, or marketing language is presented as certainty. Severity: critical. Owner: clinician reviewer with legal or regulatory review where needed. Corrective action: add context, attribution, or remove the claim. Validation step: compare the published claim with the approved evidence.
• Credential display. Evidence required: current registration, license, or certification records and any display requirements identified by the reviewer. Pass/fail condition: pass when public credentials are current and presented as required; fail when a title, number, or certification is stale or misleading. Severity: high. Owner: practice manager. Corrective action: update or remove the credential. Validation step: reconcile the live page with the current record.

Accessibility testing

• Accessibility standard review. Evidence required: the practice's accessibility test record using WCAG 2.1 AA as a technical reference where appropriate, plus any applicable legal review. Pass/fail condition: pass when identified barriers are remediated or formally tracked and the practice does not equate a checklist score with a blanket legal conclusion; fail when known barriers are ignored. Severity: high. Owner: accessibility owner. Corrective action: remediate the documented barrier according to priority. Validation step: repeat the failed automated and manual tests.
• Contrast and control testing. Evidence required: WebAIM Contrast Checker results where applicable plus keyboard and focus testing for important controls. Pass/fail condition: pass when the tested interface meets the practice's reviewed standard and important actions remain operable; fail when a barrier prevents access. Severity: high. Owner: web lead. Corrective action: adjust code or design. Validation step: rerun the same test after deployment.
• Accessibility issue ownership. Evidence required: an issue log with severity, owner, status, and retest result. Pass/fail condition: pass when material accessibility findings have owners and retest evidence; fail when findings disappear into an untracked backlog. Severity: high. Owner: accessibility owner. Corrective action: assign and remediate the issue. Validation step: close only after successful retest.

Testimonials and communications

• Material-connection disclosure. Evidence required: testimonial source, any benefit or relationship connected with the endorsement, and the approved disclosure language. Pass/fail condition: pass when the responsible reviewer confirms that required material connections are clearly handled; fail when the public presentation hides a relevant connection. Severity: high. Owner: compliance or legal reviewer. Corrective action: add or revise the disclosure or do not publish. Validation step: review the final rendered testimonial.
• Representative framing. Evidence required: source records and editorial context for each patient story. Pass/fail condition: pass when the story is presented as an individual experience and not selected or worded to imply a guaranteed typical result; fail when context converts an anecdote into a promise. Severity: high. Owner: content lead with clinician reviewer. Corrective action: revise framing or remove the story. Validation step: compare public copy with the source and approved context.
• Outcome disclaimer decision. Evidence required: reviewer guidance for whether a disclaimer is appropriate and how it should be phrased. Pass/fail condition: pass when the page follows that guidance and the underlying claim is supportable on its own; fail when a disclaimer is used to excuse a misleading claim. Severity: high. Owner: legal or regulatory reviewer. Corrective action: fix or remove the underlying claim. Validation step: approve the entire claim-and-disclaimer presentation.
• Email and SMS authorization. Evidence required: the applicable consent or other lawful communication basis, message template, sender identity, and opt-out process identified by the practice's reviewer. Pass/fail condition: pass when the campaign follows the reviewed requirements for its channel and jurisdiction; fail when staff cannot show why the message may be sent. Severity: critical. Owner: communications owner with legal or compliance review. Corrective action: stop the unsupported send and repair consent or process controls. Validation step: audit a sample campaign against the approved rule.
• Unsubscribe handling. Evidence required: working opt-out controls and suppression records. Pass/fail condition: pass when unsubscribe requests can be completed and the suppression is enforced across the relevant sending systems; fail when a recipient remains marketable after opting out. Severity: critical. Owner: communications operations. Corrective action: repair suppression synchronization. Validation step: submit a test opt-out and confirm suppression.
• Opt-out timing record. Evidence required: timestamps for request receipt and suppression plus the current rule confirmed by the responsible reviewer. Pass/fail condition: treat the source's 10 days reference as a checkpoint that must be reconciled with the currently applicable requirement; pass only when the reviewed deadline is met, and fail when the practice cannot prove timely suppression. Severity: critical. Owner: communications operations. Corrective action: shorten the workflow to the reviewed requirement and fix delayed synchronization. Validation step: compare sampled opt-out timestamps with the approved rule.

This checklist cannot guarantee compliance; responsible legal, medical, or regulatory reviewers remain required for decisions about privacy, advertising, accessibility, testimonials, communications, and clinical claims.