What to change
The preferred-address setting should describe the intended identity of that particular page. If a default points every article home, ask the supplier to derive it from the approved route and validate it during publication. Use two unrelated guides as an acceptance pair: each should keep its own correct address. This identifies a shared-template failure without asking editors to manually repair hundreds of generated pages individually.
A worked example
Illustrative example
Illustrative test: Publish two test guides with different routes and inspect their output. Suppose two new guides answer different questions about forms and reporting, yet both name the homepage as their preferred version. The supplier corrects the template so each declares its own approved route. Your content owner verifies that the guides are genuinely distinct, and a later sample publication checks the rule continues to work. Editors should not have to discover and repair the same hidden default on each new article.
What this means for your practice
A shared page template can accidentally identify the homepage as the preferred version of every guide. This is not the same as adding a useful Home link. It tells search systems that separate articles belong to a different preferred address. Ask your supplier to compare two guides answering clearly different questions and correct the setting that produces their declarations. Your content team should confirm which pages are genuinely distinct; the supplier should make each approved route explicit. Review the next new article too. A repeatable publication check is more dependable than asking editors to repair the same hidden field manually across a growing library.
How to check the result
Each distinct guide references its own approved route unless a documented duplicate relationship applies.
A mistake to avoid
A preferred-address setting is not a general link to the organisation's main website.
Turn reading into a next step
Your action checklist
Work through these checks with your team or supplier. Tick the ones you have resolved and leave unknowns open.
Record what you know, what is still missing and the answer you need from your team or supplier.
Use project decisions only, without personal, patient or confidential details. Entries stay in this page and are not submitted to Kay & Co. Copy or download before leaving; this page does not save your notes.
Further reading
These sources provide background for the topic. The practice examples and checklist are illustrative planning suggestions from Kay & Co.
Related guides
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