How should a veterinary clinic work through its SEO priorities?

This checklist is for independent veterinary practices, genuine multi-location groups, and in-house teams that can access the clinic website, Google Business Profile, analytics, Search Console, or the people who manage those systems. A typical individual check may take between 30 minutes and 4 hours depending on access, technical debt, and whether a developer or clinical reviewer is needed.

Use the same evidence pattern throughout: Evidence required identifies what must be inspected; Pass states the observable condition that must be true; Severity distinguishes blocking, high, medium, or low-priority issues; Owner names the role responsible; Corrective action describes the smallest justified fix; and Validation explains how to confirm the change actually took effect.

If the clinic is barely visible for local or service searches, begin with the foundation checks. If some services already receive qualified search visits, use Search Console, profile data, page evidence, and conversion paths to locate gaps rather than restarting work that already passes.

This is educational SEO guidance for veterinary websites. Advertising, clinical statements, credentials, emergency wording, testimonials, and other regulated or professional claims must also be reviewed against applicable AVMA guidance, state veterinary rules, platform policies, and other requirements relevant to the practice.

Why this layer comes first: Pet owners need accurate clinic information, and search systems need pages they can access and index. These checks therefore focus on factual profile setup, crawlability, indexing, security, and mobile usability. Do not treat profile activity, post frequency, structured data, or a single performance score as a guaranteed ranking lever.

Google Business Profile checks to complete in the next 48 hours

• Profile ownership. Evidence required: account access and the live listing. Pass: the clinic controls the eligible profile and its identity matches the real business. Severity: blocking if access is lost or ownership is wrong. Owner: practice manager or local-search owner. Corrective action: use Google's supported verification or ownership process. Validation: confirm authorized access and compare the live name, address, phone, and website with clinic records.
• Core business information. Evidence required: the live profile, website contact page, appointment workflow, and current operating schedule. Pass: name, address, phone, website, regular hours, special hours, and emergency availability are accurate. Severity: high when an error could send a pet owner to the wrong place or time. Owner: practice manager. Corrective action: update the incorrect field and align other authoritative records. Validation: reopen the public profile and test the displayed contact path.
• Clinic imagery. Evidence required: the public photo set and consent records where relevant. Pass: at least 15 current photos accurately represent the location, entrance, public spaces, team, or permitted patient imagery without exposing client information. Severity: medium unless an image is misleading or creates a privacy concern. Owner: marketing lead with practice approval. Corrective action: remove inaccurate material and add representative imagery. Validation: review the public gallery from a prospective client's perspective.
• Categories. Evidence required: current primary and secondary categories plus the clinic's actual service model. Pass: the primary category describes the principal business, and any 2-3 secondary categories correspond to genuine services or functions rather than keyword expansion. Severity: high for a materially misleading primary category. Owner: local-search owner with practice manager approval. Corrective action: remove unsupported categories and select the closest accurate options available in Google. Validation: compare the saved categories with the live profile.
• Business description. Evidence required: live description, service list, and website. Pass: the description uses 2-3 clear sentences to explain the clinic, location, species or service scope, and a truthful reason to contact the practice without unverifiable superlatives. Severity: medium. Owner: editorial owner with veterinary review where claims require it. Corrective action: replace vague or unsupported claims with factual language. Validation: confirm every material statement is supported elsewhere in clinic records or the site.
• Contact features. Evidence required: the profile's available messaging, booking, and call options plus the actual scheduling system. Pass: only working, monitored contact methods are enabled. Severity: high if a broken path blocks appointment requests. Owner: front-desk lead or practice manager. Corrective action: connect the approved system or disable a feature the clinic cannot monitor. Validation: submit a test through each enabled path.
• Profile updates. Evidence required: the clinic's content calendar and live posts. Pass: updates are published when there is useful, accurate information; a historical operating minimum of 2 posts per month is treated only as an internal cadence example, not an official ranking requirement. Severity: low unless an old post communicates incorrect hours, services, or health information. Owner: marketing lead. Corrective action: publish or remove content based on usefulness and accuracy. Validation: inspect the public profile for stale or contradictory information.

Technical foundations for Weeks 1-2

• XML sitemap. Evidence required: sitemap response, indexable URL sample, and Search Console submission status. Pass: the sitemap resolves, contains canonical indexable pages that should be discoverable, and is submitted where appropriate. Severity: high when discovery is materially impaired. Owner: developer or technical SEO. Corrective action: repair sitemap generation or exclusions without adding URLs that should remain non-indexable. Validation: fetch the sitemap and recheck Search Console status.
• Structured data. Evidence required: rendered page source, structured-data test results, and visible page content. Pass: markup is syntactically valid, describes facts visible to users, and does not invent services, ratings, clinicians, or locations. Severity: medium unless invalid markup blocks another critical implementation. Owner: developer with editorial review. Corrective action: remove unsupported properties and fix syntax. Validation: rerun the relevant validator and compare markup with visible content.
• Mobile performance. Evidence required: PageSpeed Insights or equivalent field and lab diagnostics plus real-device testing. Pass: the site is usable on mobile and performance problems are understood; a score below 50 is a diagnostic signal for investigation, not proof of a penalty. Severity: high for broken interaction or severe loading problems, otherwise evidence-based. Owner: developer. Corrective action: address the specific bottleneck identified in diagnostics. Validation: retest the affected templates and key actions.
• HTTPS. Evidence required: browser checks and crawl samples. Pass: canonical public pages use https://, not http://. Severity: blocking for security or canonicalization failures. Owner: developer or host administrator. Corrective action: repair certificates, redirects, internal links, and canonical signals as needed. Validation: test representative URLs and confirm a single secure destination.
• Indexing. Evidence required: Search Console indexing reports, URL inspection, robots directives, canonicals, and rendered HTML. Pass: the homepage and intended service pages are eligible for indexing and accidental exclusions are absent. Severity: blocking for priority pages that cannot be indexed. Owner: technical SEO or developer. Corrective action: fix the actual exclusion cause rather than forcing indexing requests. Validation: re-inspect corrected URLs after Google can recrawl them.
• Crawl and security issues. Evidence required: Search Console reports, server responses, and a crawl of important templates. Pass: no unresolved issue prevents users or search systems from reaching the intended canonical pages. Severity: based on affected scope. Owner: developer or technical SEO. Corrective action: repair the underlying response, redirect, robots, rendering, or security problem. Validation: recrawl and confirm the error no longer reproduces.

What this layer verifies: Each important service page should answer a real pet-owner decision: whether the clinic provides the service, for which patients or circumstances, at which genuine location, and how to contact the practice. Where pricing is relevant, link naturally to the existing cost guidance rather than inserting unsupported price claims.

Service page checks

• Core service coverage. Evidence required: service menu, appointment categories, Search Console queries, and site inventory. Pass: the clinic has useful pages for its 5-8 most important genuine services, without creating pages for procedures it does not offer. Severity: high when a commercially important service has no accurate destination. Owner: SEO lead and practice manager. Corrective action: create or improve the missing service destination. Validation: confirm the page is linked, crawlable, accurate, and aligned with the booking path.
• Primary intent. Evidence required: query data, page title, headings, copy, and competing search results. Pass: one dominant search intent is clear and matches the service actually provided. Severity: high if mixed intent makes the page misleading. Owner: SEO or editorial lead. Corrective action: narrow the page around the real service and route secondary topics elsewhere. Validation: reread the page from the perspective of a pet owner deciding whether to contact the clinic.
• Opening relevance. Evidence required: rendered page and source copy. Pass: the H1 and first 100 words identify the service and location context naturally without repetitive keyword stuffing. Severity: medium. Owner: editor. Corrective action: rewrite the opening around the user's decision. Validation: confirm the text remains understandable without reading metadata.
• Substantive coverage. Evidence required: page copy, service protocol approved for public communication, and common front-desk questions. Pass: a typical service page in the historical 500-800 word planning range is long enough to answer what the service is, who it may be relevant for, what the clinic's process is, how to prepare when appropriate, and how to request an appointment, while avoiding individualized medical advice or guaranteed outcomes. Severity: high for thin pages that omit essential decision information. Owner: editor with veterinary reviewer where clinical statements appear. Corrective action: add only evidence-backed information needed for the decision. Validation: compare the finished page against real client questions and clinic operations.
• Local accuracy. Evidence required: clinic address, actual service availability, and page copy. Pass: location wording refers only to a genuine clinic or genuine service availability and does not manufacture city pages. Severity: high for false location claims. Owner: practice manager and SEO lead. Corrective action: remove unsupported geography and, where a genuine location exists, add useful location-specific information. Validation: confirm the page matches the clinic's real operating footprint.
• Contact path. Evidence required: rendered mobile and desktop pages plus booking and phone tests. Pass: a clear contact or appointment action is visible and functional without making unsupported urgency or availability claims. Severity: high when the path is broken. Owner: developer and front-desk lead. Corrective action: repair the button, form, phone link, or booking destination. Validation: complete a test action end to end.

Homepage and primary clinic pages

• Homepage heading. Evidence required: rendered homepage and clinic positioning. Pass: the H1 identifies the practice and its real location or core care scope without a promotional superlative. Severity: medium. Owner: editor. Corrective action: replace vague branding copy with a clear factual heading. Validation: confirm the heading still works for users who arrive without search context.
• Phone and booking visibility. Evidence required: mobile and desktop review. Pass: the primary contact path is easy to find and points to a monitored channel. Severity: high if hidden or broken. Owner: developer and practice manager. Corrective action: place or repair the contact control. Validation: test from representative devices.
• Clinic credentials and identity. Evidence required: staff records, accreditation records, and public copy. Pass: founding history, team credentials, accreditation, and specialty language are published only when current and supportable. Severity: high for misleading professional claims. Owner: practice leadership and responsible reviewer. Corrective action: remove or qualify unsupported statements. Validation: reconcile each claim with current documentation.
• Internal service navigation. Evidence required: homepage links and crawl graph. Pass: the homepage gives users direct access to the 5-8 principal service pages that the practice actually wants people to understand. Severity: medium. Owner: SEO or developer. Corrective action: add descriptive internal links without overloading navigation. Validation: crawl and manually follow each route.
• Search snippet copy. Evidence required: title and description source plus Search Console observations. Pass: the description fits the page's service and location intent; the historical 150-155 character guideline is treated as an editorial target rather than a guaranteed display length. Severity: low to medium. Owner: editor. Corrective action: remove unsupported claims and write concise decision-useful copy. Validation: inspect source metadata and monitor how Google chooses to display the result.

What this layer verifies: Local information should be trustworthy across the clinic website, Google Business Profile, directories, and other places pet owners use to verify the practice. Existing Reviews guidance can support the audit, but no checklist item should turn a review count, map embed, or directory presence into a guaranteed ranking outcome.

Review governance checks

• Request policy. Evidence required: review-request templates, recipient logic, and staff instructions. Pass: eligible clients are asked consistently for honest feedback without incentives, review gating, discouraging negative reviews, or selecting only satisfied clients. Severity: high for manipulative or policy-risk workflows. Owner: practice manager and marketing lead. Corrective action: replace selective logic with a neutral, consistent process. Validation: audit recent request recipients and message copy.
• Response workflow. Evidence required: recent public reviews and internal response guidance. Pass: responses protect confidentiality, avoid arguing clinical details in public, and route sensitive issues to an appropriate private channel. The historical target of responding within 48 hours is an operating practice, not a ranking rule. Severity: high for disclosures or misleading statements. Owner: practice manager. Corrective action: revise templates and escalate clinically sensitive cases. Validation: sample recent responses against the policy.
• Review-count benchmarks. Evidence required: local competitor review counts, clinic history, and source documentation for any benchmark claim. Pass: planning references such as 10-20 new reviews per month are labeled as internal or historical targets rather than ranking requirements, and the prior comparison involving 50+ versus fewer than 20 is not presented as verified causation without a supporting source URL. Severity: medium for unsupported claims, high for manipulative acquisition tactics. Owner: SEO lead and compliance reviewer. Corrective action: remove causal language and focus on honest feedback collection. Validation: confirm public and internal materials use the qualified framing.
• Review monitoring. Evidence required: the platforms the clinic actually uses and a sample of recent alerts. Pass: staff can identify and respond to material feedback on relevant platforms without implying that every directory is a ranking factor. Severity: medium. Owner: practice manager. Corrective action: consolidate monitoring around real profiles. Validation: trigger or review recent alerts and confirm ownership.

Citation and directory checks

• Core identity consistency. Evidence required: clinic website, Google profile, major mapping services, professional directories, and business records. Pass: name, address, phone, and website refer to the same real entity and location. Severity: high for errors that misdirect users. Owner: local-search lead. Corrective action: update inaccurate listings through supported channels. Validation: spot-check public results after changes publish.
• Directory relevance. Evidence required: listing inventory and actual business relationships. Pass: the clinic appears only where the listing is legitimate; no directory or partner affiliation is claimed without authorization. Severity: high for false affiliations, medium for stale listings. Owner: practice manager and local-search lead. Corrective action: remove or correct unsupported entries. Validation: compare each important listing with source business records.
• Listing detail accuracy. Evidence required: hours, photos, services, payment information, and public listing fields. Pass: optional details are current and do not overstate service scope or acceptance policies. Severity: medium. Owner: listing owner. Corrective action: update stale fields. Validation: compare the live listing with front-desk information.

Genuine location-page checks

• Location eligibility. Evidence required: actual clinic addresses, staffing, hours, and services. Pass: a dedicated page exists only for a genuine location with useful location-specific information; a nominal market or service area alone does not automatically justify a page. Severity: high for fabricated locations. Owner: practice leadership and SEO lead. Corrective action: consolidate unsupported pages or create a useful page only for a real location. Validation: reconcile the page with business records.
• Local usefulness. Evidence required: page copy and visitor needs. Pass: directions, access details, nearby orientation, parking or arrival information, and service differences are included only where accurate. Severity: medium. Owner: editor and location manager. Corrective action: replace generic city copy with verified local information. Validation: ask location staff to check the page.
• Emergency wording and map display. Evidence required: actual opening hours, emergency capability, and public page. Pass: wording such as 24/7 appears only when the clinic truly provides that access, and any map is used for user orientation rather than claimed as a ranking factor. Severity: critical for misleading emergency availability. Owner: practice manager and editor. Corrective action: correct hours and access instructions immediately. Validation: test after-hours information and compare it with the live profile.

What this layer verifies: Educational content should answer real pet-owner questions, support service decisions, and remain accurate over time. Content volume and link acquisition should follow a stable foundation, not substitute for incorrect clinic information, broken indexing, or unsupported claims.

Educational content checks

• Publishing capacity. Evidence required: editorial calendar, reviewer availability, and performance of existing articles. Pass: an internal plan such as 1-2 useful posts per month is feasible without lowering accuracy; the cadence is not presented as a ranking requirement. Severity: low unless volume is causing inaccurate health content. Owner: editorial lead. Corrective action: reduce output and prioritize quality if review capacity is insufficient. Validation: audit the next scheduled pieces for evidence, ownership, and relevance.
• Long-tail intent. Evidence required: Search Console queries, client questions, and search-result review. Pass: topics reflect specific questions rather than generic keyword variants; a planning heuristic around 4-5 word queries is treated as a research aid, not an eligibility rule. Severity: medium for content with no clear audience need. Owner: SEO and editorial leads. Corrective action: reframe the topic around a real decision or question. Validation: map the finished article to the intended query family and service journey.
• Depth and accuracy. Evidence required: draft, cited sources where necessary, reviewer notes, and internal links. Pass: the historical 800-1,500 word range is treated as a planning reference, while actual length is determined by what is needed to answer the question accurately. Severity: high for misleading or incomplete medical information. Owner: editor and appropriate veterinary reviewer. Corrective action: remove unsupported statements, add necessary context, and link to the relevant clinic service where useful. Validation: complete editorial and clinical review before publication.
• Refresh decisions. Evidence required: traffic, query drift, outdated facts, broken links, and clinical or policy changes. Pass: content is updated when evidence shows it is stale or incomplete rather than on an arbitrary ranking schedule. Severity: based on the risk of outdated information. Owner: content owner. Corrective action: revise, consolidate, or retire the page. Validation: document what changed and why.

FAQ and question-content checks

• Question usefulness. Evidence required: front-desk questions, site search, Search Console, and service-page gaps. Pass: the page answers genuine questions such as appointment availability, pricing policy, weekend access, species served, or payment options without replacing individualized veterinary advice. Severity: medium. Owner: editorial lead and practice manager. Corrective action: replace generic questions with real decision support. Validation: confirm answers match current operations.
• Structured data expectations. Evidence required: existing markup and current Google documentation. Pass: any FAQ-related markup accurately reflects visible content and is not described as a way to earn a Google FAQ rich result. Severity: medium for misleading SEO claims or invalid markup. Owner: developer and SEO lead. Corrective action: correct or remove unsupported markup claims while leaving the contractual JSON schema unchanged. Validation: compare page source with visible questions and current documentation.
• Answer scope. Evidence required: editorial review of each question. Pass: a planning set of 8-12 questions is used only when those questions are genuinely useful, and answers of 2-3 sentences remain concise without omitting safety or access context. Severity: high when brevity creates misleading medical guidance. Owner: editor with reviewer as needed. Corrective action: expand, qualify, or remove the answer. Validation: confirm each answer resolves the question without overclaiming.

Earned-link checks

• Relevance and legitimacy. Evidence required: referring-page context, relationship record, and destination page. Pass: links come from legitimate community, professional, media, or partner contexts and are not represented as guaranteed ranking improvements. Severity: high for deceptive or manipulative placements. Owner: outreach or PR lead. Corrective action: avoid or remove problematic placements where possible. Validation: review the live referring page and anchor context.
• Local partnerships. Evidence required: real relationship with pet sitters, trainers, rescue groups, events, or other community organizations. Pass: any cross-reference exists because it helps users and accurately represents the relationship. Severity: medium for misleading affiliation. Owner: practice manager or partnerships lead. Corrective action: correct or remove the claim. Validation: confirm both organizations recognize the relationship.
• Event references. Evidence required: sponsorship or participation record and live event page. Pass: the clinic is mentioned accurately without requiring a link as a condition of support. Severity: low to medium. Owner: partnerships lead. Corrective action: request factual corrections when necessary. Validation: inspect the published event information.
• Link-worthy resources. Evidence required: original clinic expertise, verified data, or genuinely useful educational material. Pass: the resource offers distinctive value without manufactured research, unsupported statistics, or medical claims. Severity: high for fabricated evidence. Owner: editorial and veterinary reviewers. Corrective action: remove invented claims and document sources. Validation: complete source and claim review before outreach.

Use this section as a sequencing aid, not as a ranking promise. Each stage has a verification checkpoint. Historical targets from the source are preserved as planning references and must be compared with the clinic's actual baseline, competition, location, and search demand.

If the clinic ranks nowhere: Weeks 1-4 visibility triage

1. Profile accuracy checkpoint within 48 hours. Evidence: live profile and clinic records. Pass: ownership, categories, hours, contact paths, and genuine services are correct. Severity: blocking for material identity or access errors. Owner: practice manager. Corrective action: fix factual profile errors. Validation: compare the public listing with the website and front-desk process.
2. Technical checkpoint in Week 1. Evidence: crawl, indexability, sitemap, canonicals, mobile rendering, and security. Pass: priority pages can be reached and are eligible for indexing. Severity: blocking for crawl or indexing failures. Owner: developer or technical SEO. Corrective action: repair the documented cause. Validation: recrawl and re-inspect affected URLs.
3. Service-page checkpoint in Week 2. Evidence: service inventory and site content. Pass: 5-8 priority genuine services have useful, internally linked pages with accurate location and contact information. Severity: high where an important service has no usable destination. Owner: editor, SEO lead, and practice reviewer. Corrective action: create or repair the missing pages. Validation: crawl links and test the contact path.
4. Review-process checkpoint. Evidence: request templates and recipient logic. Pass: the clinic asks eligible clients consistently and neutrally; a historic planning target of 5-10 requests or reviews in a period is not converted into a ranking requirement. Severity: high for gating or incentives. Owner: practice manager. Corrective action: standardize the request process. Validation: audit recent recipients.

End-of-Week 4 validation: Track the same 3-5 priority service queries and record the actual baseline. An older planning model referenced 2-5 search impressions per day increasing toward 20-50 by Week 8; preserve those figures only as an internal comparison point, not an expected or guaranteed outcome. Pass: measurement is consistent and the team can explain changes from evidence. Corrective action: investigate crawl, relevance, location, or demand before adding more content.

If some terms rank but important services are missing: Weeks 1-8 gap repair

1. Query-to-page audit. Evidence: Search Console query and page data. Pass: important service queries have an appropriate destination and no material cannibalization or intent mismatch is evident. Severity: high for missing commercial destinations. Owner: SEO lead. Corrective action: improve the existing page or create a justified service page. Validation: remap queries after recrawl and fresh data.
2. Service gaps. Evidence: appointment mix, service priorities, and query demand. Pass: the top 5 missing genuine service opportunities have a useful page or an explicit reason not to create one. Severity: high for important gaps. Owner: SEO lead and practice manager. Corrective action: build only pages supported by real services. Validation: verify crawlability, content accuracy, and internal links.
3. Underperforming-page diagnosis. Evidence: pages historically observed around #8-#15, query intent, links, content, and SERP competition. Pass: the team identifies why the page is weak before editing it. Severity: medium to high based on business importance. Owner: SEO lead. Corrective action: improve relevance, internal linking, snippet clarity, or content depth only where evidence supports it. Validation: compare subsequent query and page performance over an appropriate observation window.
4. Review context. Evidence: review quality, policy compliance, local competitor context, and conversion feedback. Pass: review acquisition remains neutral even if the clinic is observed around positions 5-10. A historic idea that 20+ additional reviews could move a listing into positions 1-3 must be treated as an unverified planning hypothesis, not a causal rule. Severity: high for manipulative review tactics. Owner: practice manager and SEO lead. Corrective action: remove ranking promises and continue consistent honest feedback requests. Validation: audit policy and messaging.

End-of-Week 8 validation: The source previously referenced movement from position 8-10 to position 5-7 for the top 3 service terms. Preserve that sequence only as a historical comparison benchmark. Pass: the clinic can show what changed in visibility and what evidence plausibly explains it without claiming causation. Corrective action: keep, reverse, or refine changes based on measured results.

If core services already rank in the top 3: Weeks 1-12 expansion

1. Adjacent service coverage. Evidence: genuine service offerings, search demand, and current site gaps. Pass: expansion targets real services rather than thin variants. Severity: medium. Owner: SEO and practice leads. Corrective action: consolidate unsupported pages and create only justified destinations. Validation: confirm each new page has distinct decision value.
2. Topical support. Evidence: recurring client questions and service-page gaps. Pass: 4-6 substantial educational resources support real user needs and link naturally to relevant service information. Severity: medium, high when medical claims lack review. Owner: editorial lead and veterinary reviewer. Corrective action: improve evidence, scope, or internal linking. Validation: complete editorial and clinical QA.
3. Location expansion. Evidence: genuine clinic addresses, staffing, hours, and services. Pass: each location page exists because a real clinic needs location-specific information, not because a nominal market name is available. Severity: high for fabricated locations. Owner: practice leadership and local-search lead. Corrective action: remove or consolidate false-location pages. Validation: reconcile each page with business records and its profile.
4. Authority development. Evidence: legitimate partnerships, media references, professional relationships, and useful resources. Pass: outreach is relevant, transparent, and not built on fabricated claims. Severity: high for deceptive placements. Owner: PR or outreach lead. Corrective action: stop questionable campaigns and focus on defensible relationships. Validation: review live placements and claims.

End-of-Week 12 validation: A previous internal target referenced 8-12 top-3 positions. Treat it as a stretch planning marker rather than a promise. Pass: the clinic documents actual query coverage, qualified organic contacts, and location-specific visibility without inflating causation or commercial outcomes. Corrective action: prioritize the gaps that remain closest to genuine service demand.

SEO implementation does not override veterinary advertising, professional, privacy, platform, or consumer-protection obligations. Build a publication record for any statement that could affect how a pet owner understands credentials, clinical scope, emergency access, pricing, testimonials, or expected outcomes.

• AVMA ethics guidance. Evidence required: the current applicable professional guidance and the exact public claim. Pass: marketing is truthful, not misleading, and does not overstate credentials, specialty status, or outcomes. Severity: high for unsupported professional or clinical claims. Owner: responsible practice reviewer. Corrective action: remove, qualify, or substantiate the statement. Validation: record the reviewer and evidence used.
• State veterinary requirements. Evidence required: the rules applicable to the clinic's jurisdiction and the role of the person publishing the content. Pass: the practice does not assume that a national template resolves state-specific advertising or professional-communication duties. Severity: high where licensing or professional rules may apply. Owner: practice leadership with qualified legal or regulatory review when needed. Corrective action: adapt or withhold content until jurisdiction-specific review is complete. Validation: document the applicable source and approval.
• FTC and other advertising requirements. Evidence required: the public claim, substantiation, endorsements, and material-connection records where relevant. Pass: statements are not deceptive and any required disclosure is clear. Severity: high for unsupported health-benefit, outcome, testimonial, or endorsement claims. Owner: practice leadership and qualified reviewer. Corrective action: remove or revise unsupported advertising. Validation: complete claim-by-claim review before publication.

This checklist cannot guarantee compliance, and responsible legal, medical, or regulatory reviewers remain required for claims or workflows that fall within their remit. Keep SEO decisions separate from clinical judgment, and do not publish a search-optimized statement merely because it appears commercially attractive.