Primary Website Guidelines

Goal: Verify or find the primary or official website for the business entity

How to verify if the website is the official website for the business:

Official websites must be a valid URL and match the provided name and address from the
“Current Business Details” section of the UHRS hit app. You can find this information in various
places such as footer or links like contact us, about us, etc. Do the diligent research to verify that
the business details provided are found on the website or not. The name and address should
match exactly or be very close. If the business information is not found on the website, do a web
search to try to discover the official website for the business.

Double check the URL when clicking a link from a search page – we want to avoid using a URL
with source or referral text. Additionally, in instances where a URL redirects, we should use the
redirected link because we want to use the most direct link possible. Avoid using unofficial sites.
These include:

• aggregator pages (such as Yelp or TripAdvisor)

• unofficial social sites (make sure that a Facebook page is official, not a community page)
• container entities (like using the website for a mall instead of a store in the mall)

For Chain Entities: choose or find the URL to the store/department and NOT the main URL. For
e.g., for Walmart in Bellevue http://www.walmart.com/store/3098 is preferred over
http://www.walmart.com

Examples for Primary Web Site:

• Individual business: "Café Flora" - www.cafeflora.com

• Chain business in certain location: Kirkland's "Chipotle Mexican Grill" -
https://www.locations.chipotle.com/wa/kirkland/12530-totem-lake-blvd-ne

Hit app:

• Current business details: Provide basic information available for the business such as business
name, address, and phone number.
• Research interface:
a. Search for: Allows crowd to search for the business entity in the web using provided
attributes such as name, address, city, state, postal code, phone. Crowd can click on any
of these attributes to add them as search strings and click on either Bing or Google. If
the search string is not passed through successfully as query parameter, crowd can copy
and paste the search string in Bing or Google.
b. Site URL: Click on site checkbox to enable. This will do a site search for the specified site
for the parameters specified in the “Search for field.”
Hint: Try portions of the address or phone using site: search, like site:gap.com "543
Wilmington", to match old locations
• Step 1:
Choose any of the following option for the Business entity provided:
a. Suggested URL -> Check the suggested URL(s) provided in the hitapp first. If you find a
valid website with matching details to the “Current Business Details” section, select the
appropriate URL to verify the official website for the business.
b. All suggested values above are wrong -> choose this option if the official website is not
suggested. A new field will appear where you must enter the official website you found
for the business through your research.
c. I verified value should be empty -> choose this option if there is no official primary
website found for the business.
d. Unable to verify -> choose this option if you are not able to verify if the provided URL is
not the official website due to error, page under construction, or page loads in a
different language. Please note that this option should also be chosen in certain
situations where the data shouldn’t be curated at all. This includes illegal activities, and
individual doctors’ names when they are NOT also the exact business name. Commented [MI1]: Added missing information for
• Step 2: individual doctors' names and illegal activities.
You will have to provide some kind of evidence for the answer you provide:
a. Suggested URL -> While on the chosen website, use “Select All” (hold either ctrl or
command buttons and press A), “Copy” (ctrl+C) the text and then paste it (ctrl+V) into
the “Provide Evidence” text field for judgment evidence that appears on selection.
b. All suggested values above are wrong -> No further action is required after you add the
correct URL.
c. I verified value should be empty -> Copy and paste the URL of the web search you
performed to determine the entity was open but had no official web presence.
d. Unable to verify -> Copy and paste the URL of the web search you performed to
determine there was no evidence for this entity.
• Step 3:
a. Verify that option you selected is reflected correctly in the section and then hit submit.
Appendix I

a) Selecting the official website preferred URL

When identifying the “preferred” site for the proposed entity, the judge must consider these points
when making their selection. The following are questions a judge should ask:

• When you click on the proposed URL, does that link get redirected or changed to a different
URL? If the link redirects, then the proposed URL is NOT the preferred URL. The preferred
URL is the link the proposed URL changed to.

• Does this proposed URL provide a user with easy access to the entity’s contact information
(address, phone, email) or access to the entity’s services? Always check if there is a better
website than the one given in the original data. The URL given in the original data is not
necessarily the best website.

b) Invalid dedicated pages.

A dedicated page must present itself as exclusive to one location and explicitly for general information
for that location. Lists containing more than 1 location are considered incorrect, as are URLs that are
merely the locator positioned to zoom in on 1 address. Sometimes, you may find a page that lists only
the information for a single location as it should, but the page itself presents it in a different context,
such as a page showing an event calendar for a given location. These aren’t proper dedicated pages and
so cannot be used.

• Exceptions:
If a business that belongs to a chain doesn’t have a dedicated website, the chain main website
can be considered as the dedicated website.
• If the chain website only includes one location that matches the business, it can be considered
the dedicated website.

c) Determining if the URL is valid

Never provide a URL with a source index. (Example: Source=yext) Judges must remove this code from
the URL. Sourcing information may also be shown at the end of the URL with characters starting with
a ? or * symbol. When this happens, check if the website still loads correctly when you remove this
part.

Example of a long URL:

http://www.basspro.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/CFPageC?storeId=10151&catalogId=10051&langId=1&ap
pID=94&storeID=43&omniture=zipcode&userZip=80238
Can be shortened to:
http://www.basspro.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/CFPageC?storeId=10151&catalogId=10051&langId=1&ap
pID=94&storeID=43

d) Use of http VS https

Most of the time, a URL with http will automatically redirect to the https version, but some don’t. The
policy is to always favor https over http, unless https causes problems with loading the page. These
problems include a warning message showing instead of the website itself, the page failing to load
entirely, or the page loads, but without its normal format. Whenever a website has http, you MUST
check if https works correctly. If it does, change the URL to include https.

e) Identifying Official Facebook pages

A verified official Facebook (VOFB), is a page that has been claimed or created by the actual entity.
When a Facebook Page is official, there are certain attributes available on the page that is not available
in unofficial Facebook (UFB). In 2017, Facebook updated the layout of VOFB's to make it easier for users
to identify the difference. 

Features that are available on VOFB's are:

• Call of Action Buttons: buttons which suggest the user to perform a specific action, such as: Book,
Call, Contact Us, Learn More, Sign Up, etc.
• Layout for a VOFB is different from UFB
o Position of the Profile Picture: which is positioned on the upper top left corner of the page,
when typically the profile picture in midway left (aligned with the footer of the header picture)
o Address/Contact Information Position: VOFB contact information is ALWAYS on the midway
right of the page
o Featured Items, Photos: always positioned above the post feed
o Page Tabs: OFBs have internal menu tabs, which are always positioned underneath the Profile
Picture, midway left.
• "People Also Like" - task box positioned lower right
• "Community" - task box positioned upper right
• "Star Rating" - task box positioned upper right
• "Instant Message Chat box" popup
• URL Address: will contain the page name instead of numbers
Example of

VOFB:

Site: https://www.facebook.com/Thecubbyhole2/ 

!!!!!!!! ALWAYS CHECK THE URL ATTATCHED TO THE FACEBOOK, TO MAKE SURE
THE OW IS VALID AND WORKING!!!!!!!!!!!!
Another common Judgment error is that the judges select the OFB before verifying the OW attached to
the OFB. Check the link registered on these pages as entity website. There is a possibility that a general
Google search didn't pull the OW due to incomplete META.

What is a Verified Official Facebook?

Verified Official Facebook pages are pages where the entity took the extra step to validate their page,
while an Unverified Official Facebook page, does NOT have a "certification check mark." This
Verification feature is ONLY for business pages. It is not a feature available for Official Personal
Pages**.

Currently, there are no preference between Verified and Non-verified OFBs. An OFB is considered valid
so long as it is active. 

There are 2 Levels of Verification Stamps:

1. Standard Business Validation reserved for all standard businesses. The check mark is "grey"
2. Elite Business Validation reserved for very large and socially popular entities. The check mark is
"blue"
 Standard Verification Stamped Page: Elite Verification Stamped Page:

What is a Community Facebook?

Community Facebook pages are a gray area between Verified Official Facebook pages with a checkmark
and Unofficial Facebook pages. They can be created by users, the business, or Facebook itself, or an
official page with a checkmark can be converted into a Community page by Facebook. Facebook shows
information licensed from Wikipedia on these pages. The layout is similar to Verified Official Facebook
pages, but they don’t have the ‘verified’ checkmark. Community Facebook pages can count as Official
Facebook pages, but ONLY if it has posts from the entity itself. Without such posts, these are
considered unofficial and cannot be used as the OW.

Example of Community Facebook:

What is an Unofficial Facebook?

Unofficial Facebook pages (UFB), are typically created because there is a high number of users "check-
in" to that particular entity. There is also the possibility that "fans" make these pages and sometimes
these pages are created from the Facebook scanning robot combining various popular information to
make an entity appear official. In other words, UFB's tend to be automatic "patches" for creating
temporary placeholders for Facebook users to check-in to. 

Since there is no guarantee if the information on these pages was created by the entity, the information
is not credible. DO NOT USE THESE PAGES AS OW.

Just like how OFBs have unique features, UFBs also have unique features to ensure the user knows that
the information on the page is not credible. 

Features found on UFBs:

• "Suggest Contact Info" task box – positioned upper left
• Address Info – positioned midway left
• Profile Picture – positioned inside Cover/Header picture box
• "Unofficial Page" stamp – located underneath page action buttons
• "Check In counter" - positioned inside of Address and called "visits"
• "Public Ratings" - meaning general public reviews
• "Is this your business?" Link – for actual entities to click to claim (similar to YELP pages)
• URL incomplete: the URL has a series of numbers (Page ID number). The Page ID can be trailing after
page name or the only title for the page.

Site: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Yellow-Submarine-Sandwich-Shop/121202261227402 

An unofficial page, such as https://www.facebook.com/pages/Wild-Ginger/120990724653232?fref=ts,

may clearly be called out.