Tip 18 of 31: Replace Vague Claims With Specific Evidence

Marketing language that sounds impressive but says very little is everywhere on recruitment agency websites. It gives readers little useful information and provides automated systems with limited context for assessing the claim.

The Problem

Phrases such as “we deliver results”, “trusted by industry leaders” and “streamlined solutions for modern recruitment” could apply to almost any company in any sector.

Without supporting information, readers have no clear way to understand what those claims mean or decide whether they are credible. Specific evidence gives them something more useful to evaluate.

What Specific Evidence Looks Like

Our client The Advocate Group recovered 11 years of lost SEO rankings within 90 days of launching their new website.

That sentence includes a named client, a specific result and a measurable timeframe. It is more informative and easier to evaluate than:

We help recruitment agencies improve their online presence.

The same principle applies to statistics. Instead of saying:

Applications increased.

say:

Candidate applications increased by 27% in the seven months following the website launch.

Specific details do not guarantee rankings, inclusion in AI-generated answers or citations. They do, however, make the information clearer and give readers a better basis on which to assess it.

Specific Evidence Is Our Edge Too

One of our clients generated £45,000 in placement fees from their website in a single month.

That is not a vague claim. It identifies a specific result, a defined period and a monetary value. It gives readers something concrete to evaluate rather than asking them to accept a general statement about website performance.

Where appropriate, replace broad marketing language with this kind of accurate, contextualised evidence throughout your website.

What to Do

Go through your homepage, service pages and About page. Highlight every sentence that makes a claim.

For each one, ask:

Where is the evidence for this?

If there is none, either remove the claim, qualify it honestly or replace it with a specific, verifiable result.

Make sure the evidence is accurate and presented in context. A single client result should not be described as an average or used to imply that every customer will achieve the same outcome.

Up Next

Tip 19 of 31 shifts to the page’s technical structure and why the underlying code matters alongside the content presented to readers.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I include evidence from a single client or does it need to be an average?

Both are valid but need to be presented differently. A single client result should be framed as a case study. An industry average should be based on real data from multiple sources. The framing determines how the evidence is understood.

What if I do not have specific data to support my claims?

Remove the claim or replace it with a more honest statement.

“We focus on building websites that generate leads, not just look good” is more credible than “we always deliver outstanding results” if you cannot substantiate the latter.

How detailed does evidence need to be to be useful?

Enough for readers to understand and assess the claim.

A result with a named client, a specific metric and a timeframe is stronger than “a major client saw improvement”. More relevant detail generally makes a claim easier to evaluate, provided the information is accurate and presented with appropriate context.

Will AI tools check whether my evidence is accurate?

You should not assume that an AI-assisted system will independently verify every claim before presenting or referring to it.

Claims that conflict with reliable published information may still be challenged or disregarded. Publish only information you can verify and correct inaccurate material promptly.

Can case studies count as evidence on service or product pages?

Yes. Linking to a relevant case study can provide useful context for a claim on a service or product page.

A brief, accurate summary with a link to the full case study allows readers to examine the result and its circumstances in more detail.

Darren Revell, Co-Founder, RecruiterWEB