Start with the claim
Review the sentence before choosing the source. A claim about product behavior, legal requirements, medical guidance, market size, pricing, or technical limits needs evidence that directly supports it.
If the claim is broad or vague, make it more specific before sourcing. It is easier to verify a precise statement than a sweeping one.
Prefer primary sources
Primary sources include official documentation, standards bodies, research papers, government sources, company documentation, and first-party data.
Secondary sources can help explain context, but they should not carry risky claims alone. Use them carefully and check whether they cite stronger original sources.
Check recency and fit
Some facts age quickly. Platform features, laws, pricing, market data, and AI-search behavior should be checked against recent sources before publishing.
A source from several years ago may still be fine for a stable definition but weak for a current product feature or market claim.
Match the source to the claim type
Use official documentation for platform behavior, government or regulator sources for legal and public data, research papers for scientific claims, and company sources for product-specific facts.
For examples and practical guidance, a source may support context rather than prove a statistic, but the article should make that role clear.
Avoid citation decoration
A link after a sentence does not automatically make the sentence reliable. The source must support the exact claim in the article.
If the source only partially supports the claim, rewrite the claim so it matches the evidence.
Show source work in the handoff
For SEO production, the final handoff should identify sources used, claims changed, and any statements that still require client approval.
This helps reviewers see that fact checking happened before the article entered the CMS.