How to tell if a website's claims are backed by evidence

Every website makes claims. Some describe a product, some describe the law, and some describe what research shows. Before you buy, sign up or book, it's worth knowing which kind of claim you're reading, and whether anything stands behind it.

1. Separate facts from opinions

A claim is something stated as fact: "approved by the state," "required by law," "clinically proven." Opinions ("the best in the business") and personal stories ("it worked for me") can be honest, but they aren't evidence. Sourken labels those separately and never scores them.

2. Look for the source, not the confidence

A confident sentence isn't a sourced one. When a page says a rule or a study exists, look for a link to the official source itself: a government agency, a standards body or a published study. A link to the seller's own page, or to no page at all, isn't the same thing.

3. Read what the source actually says

Sources get stretched. A study about one product gets used to sell another; a rule about one situation gets described as covering every situation. Open the source and find the sentence that supports the claim. If you can't find it, the claim isn't backed by that source.

4. Check the date

Rules and research change. A claim that was true years ago may not be true now. Prefer the newest official guidance, and treat archived pages with care.

5. Notice who's speaking

A company describing its own product is not independent evidence. Neither is an industry group describing the industry it represents. That doesn't make them wrong, but independent and official sources count for more.

What Sourken does for you

Sourken runs these checks on a page's claims for you: it finds each claim, compares it with official sources and published research, and only accepts a verdict when the supporting quote appears word for word in the source. The result is an evidence label beside each search result and a Sourken Score in every full report, with the quotes and links so you can check our work too.