# Search & Answer Visibility Evidence Desk

Local-first worksheet for search marketing strategists, publishers, and business owners. It prepares crawl, index, structured-content, submission, and measurement evidence. It does not guarantee indexing, ranking, traffic, AI citation, recommendation, or revenue. Do not deploy, submit URLs, change robots/canonical/schema, or alter search accounts without the site owner's exact approval.

## 1. Real query and useful-job card

- Exact query/question in the audience's language: ____________________
- Person/job/situation behind it: ____________________
- Decision or task the page should help complete: ____________________
- Existing page/guide that already answers it: ____________________
- Evidence that the question is real: ____________________
- Unique value/artifact this page adds: ____________________
- Claim or scope the page will not cover: ____________________
- Content owner/reviewer: ____________________
- Publish/deploy authority: ____________________

Do not create a new URL when an existing page can be improved without confusing intent or duplicating value.

## 2. Answer-first content brief

- Direct answer in 40–80 words: ____________________
- Who it is for: ____________________
- What the reader will make/do: ____________________
- Numbered route: ____________________
- Useful artifact/tool: ____________________
- Evidence/source desk: ____________________
- Important limitation/caveat: ____________________
- Related internal guides: ____________________
- Author/reviewer and update date: ____________________

Write for a human who wants to solve the job. Machine readability comes from clarity, structure, and evidence—not keyword repetition.

## 3. Claim and source coverage table

| Claim ID | Exact visible claim | Source URL/evidence | Claim class | Scope/date | Contradiction/limit | Reviewer status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| C-01 |  |  | verified primary / internal test / vendor claim / inference / uncertain |  |  | pending / approved / revise |

Every material answer needs evidence appropriate to its consequence. Search visibility is not proof that a claim is true.

## 4. Crawl and index control matrix

| Surface/crawler | Intended access | Official control reviewed | robots/meta/header result | Firewall/CDN result | Last verified | Owner decision |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Googlebot / Google Search | allow / block / scoped |  |  |  |  |  |
| Bingbot / Bing & Copilot grounding | allow / block / scoped |  |  |  |  |  |
| OAI-SearchBot / ChatGPT search | allow / block / scoped |  |  |  |  |  |
| GPTBot / OpenAI model training | allow / block / scoped |  |  |  |  |  |
| Claude-SearchBot / Claude search | allow / block / scoped |  |  |  |  |  |
| ClaudeBot / Anthropic model training | allow / block / scoped |  |  |  |  |  |
| User-triggered agents, if applicable | allow / block / scoped |  |  |  |  |  |

Search crawling and model-training crawling may use different agents and controls. Recheck current first-party documentation. A robots rule manages access preferences; it does not guarantee indexing, exclusion from every surface, or citation.

## 5. Canonical, sitemap, page, and structured-data parity

- Preferred canonical HTTPS URL: ____________________
- Server status and redirect chain: ____________________
- HTML canonical target: ____________________
- Sitemap URL and exact entry: ____________________
- Accurate `lastmod` evidence: ____________________
- Index/robots meta and HTTP headers: ____________________
- Title and meta description: ____________________
- Visible H1/direct answer: ____________________
- Structured-data types: ____________________
- Structured data matches visible page: Yes / No
- Images/assets crawlable and described: ____________________
- JavaScript/server rendering evidence: ____________________

Structured data describes visible content; it must not invent ratings, authors, FAQs, products, prices, dates, or claims. Valid markup does not guarantee a rich result or AI citation.

## 6. Entity and internal-link map

| Entity/topic | Canonical page | How this page names it | Incoming relevant links | Outgoing evidence/guide links | Conflict/duplicate |
|---|---|---|---:|---|---|
|  |  |  |  |  |  |

Use crawlable, descriptive links inside a clear hierarchy. Do not create doorway pages, link schemes, hidden text, or near-duplicate location/job/query variants.

## 7. Change, submission, and verification receipt

- Exact page/artifact hash or version: ____________________
- Local QA passed: links / JS / XML / JSON-LD / desktop / mobile / console / overflow
- Approved publish/deploy owner and receipt: ____________________
- Deployment URL/result: ____________________
- Google Search Console sitemap/inspection action and result: ____________________
- Bing Webmaster sitemap/inspection action and result: ____________________
- IndexNow submitted URLs/result, if approved: ____________________
- Search/AI crawler access verified after deployment: ____________________
- Errors/warnings/limits: ____________________

Submission means “notified” or “requested,” not indexed, ranked, cited, or recommended. Record the exact response and later observed state separately.

## 8. Visibility, citation, and refresh log

| Date | Surface | Query | Observed result/citation/referral | Page/version | Evidence | Interpretation limit | Next action |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|  | Google / Bing / ChatGPT / Claude / analytics / other |  |  |  | screenshot/export/log |  | keep / improve / consolidate / update / remove |

Track impressions, clicks, referrals, cited queries, downloads, and task completion when available. Do not treat a single manual search, personalized result, bot visit, or citation as stable rank or causal business proof.

## Refresh decision card

- Facts/products/policies that may have changed: ____________________
- Broken or superseded sources: ____________________
- Queries with impressions but weak task completion: ____________________
- Duplicate/cannibalizing pages: ____________________
- Evidence/artifact improvement: ____________________
- Decision: keep / update / merge / redirect / noindex / remove
- Approved by/date: ____________________

## Safe prompt

> Act as a search and answer visibility preparation clerk, not a search engine, crawler owner, publisher, deployer, ranking authority, or citation guarantor. Using the supplied page, sources, and current first-party documentation, create: (1) a real-query/job card, (2) an answer-first content brief, (3) a claim/source coverage table, (4) a crawl/index control matrix separated by crawler purpose, (5) canonical/sitemap/structured-data parity checks, (6) an internal-link/entity map, and (7) a measurement and refresh plan. Do not invent search volume, rank, traffic, citations, reviews, authorship, dates, schema fields, or crawler behavior. Do not publish, deploy, submit URLs, change robots, or modify search accounts. Mark every assumption and recheck requirement.