Editorial team and standards

Every page on this site carries the byline of the desk that produced it. A desk is a part of our editorial operation, not a single person: we do not put invented names or faces on our work.

Atlas Guides Desk

Lessons and tactic pages. The Guides Desk writes the curriculum and the tactic pages: how links work, what each way of earning them costs, and how risky it is.

Every figure names its source and the year it was published.
Claims about how search engines work are tied to official documentation, patents, court exhibits or published studies, and the page says which.
Where the evidence is thin or comes from a single vendor, the sentence says so.
Each tactic carries the same R1 to R5 risk rating, defined on the tactics page.

Atlas Markets Desk

Industry playbooks. The Markets Desk writes the industry playbooks: what works, what it costs and what regulation touches links in each market, including the high-risk ones.

Prices and publisher acceptance rates come from named datasets, with the date.
Typical link profiles, anchor patterns and pace are presented as rules of thumb, not measurements.
Case studies are used only with a named source, and agency-published ones are labelled.
Risky and guideline-breaking methods are explained so readers can judge them. Explaining a method is not a recommendation.

Atlas Reviews Desk

Vendor and tool reviews. The Reviews Desk writes the vendor and tool reviews and maintains the vendor database.

Desk reviews are written from the vendor's own public pages and independent review platforms, with the date we checked.
A review never implies we have used a product when we have not.
Editor's ratings are opinion and are labelled as such. Test scores are added only after real orders.
Every review states whether we have a commercial relationship with the vendor.

Atlas Standards Desk

Fact checking. The Standards Desk checks pages after they are written. A page shows a fact-check date only once it has passed.

Every number, date, price and named source on the page is compared with the source it cites.
Anything that cannot be matched to a source is corrected, hedged or removed.
Vendor facts are compared with the vendor data we hold and its recorded check date.
The fact-check date on a page is the date of its most recent pass.

How a page is made

Research. We collect primary sources first: official documentation, court exhibits, published studies and the vendor's own pages.
Drafting. Pages open with the short answer and then show the evidence. Research and drafting are supported by AI tools.
Checking. Figures are checked against their source, and prices against the vendor's own page on a dated check.
Editing. An editor with hands-on SEO experience in competitive markets is responsible for what is published.
Updating. Each page shows the date it was last updated or checked.

Independence

Some vendor links are affiliate links. Vendors cannot pay for a review, a rating or a position. Editor's picks are an editorial choice and are labelled wherever they appear. See the affiliate disclosure and how we review.

Corrections

If something is wrong or out of date, email hello@offpageatlas.com. We check the claim against a public source and update the page with a new date.