Advertising Policy
Last updated
[[PENDING: legal review]] This is a working draft and has not yet been reviewed by an attorney.
Current status: we are not accepting or running any advertising or sponsored placements yet. We’re publishing these rules in advance so readers and future advertisers know how it will work.
1. Payment never buys rank or rating
Our editorial lists, “best for” picks, comparison tables, and verdicts come only from our publishedevaluation method. In our systems, editorial data is stored separately from advertising data, so a payment cannot change the order or content of a comparison.
2. Paid units are separate and always labeled
- Sponsored listing: a paid product card shown outside the editorial ranking, labeled “Sponsored” with the sponsor’s name.
- Featured brand: a brand spotlight, labeled “Sponsored · Featured brand.”
- Display advertisement: an image ad of a fixed size, labeled “Advertisement.”
- Sponsored comparison spot: an “Also consider (Sponsored)” row shown below an editorial comparison, never inside it.
- Sponsored content: an article paid for by a brand, labeled “Sponsored by [Brand]” at the top and in the byline, and kept in a separate section of the site.
Labels appear before the ad, in legible type with clear contrast, on all devices. We avoid unclear labels like “Partner” or “Promoted” used alone. No ad appears above a page’s main heading or its quick answer, and we don’t use pop-ups, interstitials, or sticky ads on mobile.
3. No approval of our content
Advertisers never see or approve our content before it’s published. They may report factual errors in product specifications, and we log any correction we make.
4. Fair treatment of all brands
No brand gets a ranking or verdict advantage because of payment or a business relationship. Pages that include paid links disclose that relationship next to the link and follow the labeling rules above.
5. Which ads we accept
- No unproven medical claims.
- No ads for products under an active FDA recall.
- No misleading “free bed” offers or lead-generation schemes.
- No misleading Medicare marketing. Medicare Advantage and insurance advertisers are responsible for following CMS marketing rules, and we may refuse these ads.
- No ads on hospice, end-of-life, free-bed, or other sensitive pages.
- We may refuse any ad for any reason.
6. Links in paid units
Every link inside a paid placement carries rel="sponsored". We never sell links that pass search-engine ranking credit. Editorial links to manufacturers that haven’t paid stay ordinary links.
7. Limits on ads per page
At most three paid units per article. Paid units never push the main content out of view or shift the page as it loads.
8. Category sponsorships
We may sell an exclusive sponsorship for a topic area, but exclusivity never extends to editorial content.
Contact about advertising
[[PENDING: advertising contact email, or state that inquiries are not yet accepted]]